BLAKE AND JAKE

Blake and Jake were identical twins. They were indeed so identical that even their oldsters found it problematic to differentiate one from another.

  However, they were extremely different from one another in their personalities, EVERYTHING apart from their looks. Blake had no friends, whereas Jake was an excellent relationship maker. Blake favoured sweets, but Jake favoured spicy food. Having said that, Blake was dad’s boy and Jake was mom’s boy. However, Blake was generous and altruistic, Jake was greedy and selfish!

  As Blake and Jake grew up, their father wished to divide his wealth equally amongst them. Jake failed to agree, and he argued that whoever evidenced to be more intellectual and powerful would have to get a larger part of the affluence.

Blake agreed. Their father decided to arrange a competition between the two. He asked the two sons to stride as long as they want, and come home before sunset. The fortune would be distributed in share to the distance covered. Because of the rule of the competition, they weren’t allowed to have a watch to keep track of the time.

The succeeding day, Blake and Jake got out to walk. It was a fairly sunny day. Blake walked slowly and progressively, whereas Jake sprinted, as he was determined on winning a much bigger quota of his father’s wealth.

  Blake discerned that it’d be better to walk as far as possible till noontime and return home because it would take the same amount of time to make it back home on time.

  On the other hand, Jake, with his greed to earn more riches, did not try to come back home even after mid-noon. He ran thrice as long as Blake and assumed he would still be able to come home before sunset, as his father had mentioned. He hassled back once he saw the sun turn orange. Unluckily, he couldn’t even make it halfway home as the sun was underway to set. Darkness encircled his way and he had to slog his exhausted feet home.

  He lost the competition just for his greed. “Earth provides enough to satisfy each man’s desires, but not every man’s greed”- Mahatma Gandhi. It results in an enormous loss. 

Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of my imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or persons is entirely coincidental. || Contents of this story should not be reproduced in any manner without permission.