A Tale of 2 Brothers

Sam and Tom were identical twins. They were so identical that even their mother found it difficult to distinguish one from the other.

But apart from their looks, the two boys couldn’t be any more different. The first young boy, Sam, had no problems making friends. Meanwhile, the other little boy, Tom, was bad at keeping them. Sam loved sweets but Tom loved spicy food. Sam was mommy’s pet and Tom was daddy’s pet.

Sam was generous and selfless. Tom had a very bad temper and was very greedy.

This is where this motivational story gets interesting.

As Sam and Tom grew up, their father wanted to share his fortune equally amongst them. However, Tom did not agree and he argued that whoever proved to be more intelligent and strong would have to get a bigger share of the wealth.

Sam agreed. Their father decided to organize a competition between the two. He asked the two sons to walk as long as they could and return home before sunset. The wealth would be divided in proportion to the distance covered. As a rule of the competition, they were not permitted to carry a watch to keep track of the time.

The following day, Sam and Tom set out to walk. It was a rather sunny day. Sam walked slowly and steadily, while Tom broke into a sprint as he was bent on winning the race and winning a greater portion of his father’s wealth.

Sam knew that it would be ideal to walk as far as possible until noon then head home by noon as it would take the same amount of time to walk back home. And so he did.

However, Tom—with his greed to earn more wealth—did not attempt to return home even after mid-noon. He walked twice as long as Sam and thought he would still be able to return home before sunset. He hurried back when he saw the sun turn orange. Unfortunately, he could not even make it halfway. Darkness slowly engulfed his path and he had to drag his tired feet back home.

He had lost the race because of his greed.