The truth is in the details

I found this amusing and interesting tale on the internet.

I found it on a blog where the author did not know who the writer was; out of respect for the author, I looked it up. It appears to be by someone named Camilo Cruz.

"This is the story of “The Cow” by Dr. Camilo Cruz. It is said that on one occasion a teacher wanted to teach his disciple the secrets to achieving a prosperous and happy life. To do this, the teacher decided to leave with the young man on a journey to the poorest village they could find. There, they would look for the humblest family in the area, where they would spend the night. Thus they arrived at an old farmhouse almost about to collapse, undoubtedly the poorest place in the area. In that little shack of barely 10 square meters lived 8 people. But the family had one possession: they had a cow, and the life of all of them revolved around the cow: “you must milk the cow”, “you must take the cow out”, “you must give water to the cow”. The cow rendered a very important service because they considered that they were not so poor since they had a cow. The teacher and the disciple slept there. Early the next morning, before anyone woke up, both got up and prepared to leave. The disciple was not very happy because he felt that he had learned nothing, but the teacher said to him: “It is time for you to learn the lesson you came here to learn.”

Slowly, the teacher approached where the animal was tied and, before the young man’s incredulous gaze, the old man took out an enormous knife and killed the cow. The young man was alarmed, he couldn’t understand anything and expressed his dismay. Unperturbed, the teacher then prepared to leave; the disciple thought that because of him that family would now have no means to earn a living.

The story goes that a year later the teacher called the disciple and suggested that they return to that place to see what had happened to the cow. The young man agreed, still feeling guilty for what had happened. They returned to that area but they did not find the dwelling; where the shack had been, there was now a large, new house. The young man thought that the family must have had to leave the place. When they knocked on the door, the man who answered was the same who had hosted them the previous year. How was it possible that now they had that huge house, were well dressed and life was smiling upon them? The man invited them in and told them that, as soon as they left that day, they discovered that some criminal had killed the cow. And although at first they despaired at their new situation, they soon decided to fix the land and plant some seeds to feed themselves.

Soon, those seeds produced so abundantly that they had to sell the harvest, then buying more seeds and replanting. Thus, little by little, they made progress and the farm yielded so much profit that they were able to buy a new house, new clothes… and a new life. The tragic death of the cow turned out to be a true blessing.

Upon leaving, the disciple realized the lesson the teacher wanted to impart: the death of the cow was not the end for that family but the beginning of a new and brighter future. The teacher asked the young man: do you believe that if this family still had their cow, they would have achieved all of this in one year? The disciple replied no. “You see?” he said. “The cow was not only their sustenance but also the chain that tied them to a life of conformity and mediocrity. They had to learn to see beyond in order to escape the misery that they did not even recognize they were in, because they had a cow.”

The following text I took from the blog:

http://monicaperezdelasheras.blogspot.com.es/2009/04/el-cuento-de-la-vaca.html.