THE MOTHER AND HER THREE DAUGHTERS
Often there is more good to be found in one man than in a
crowd of people, as I will reveal to posterity in this little
story.
A certain man left three daughters at his death. One daughter was very beautiful
and always chasing after men with her eyes. Another daughter was the frugal type
with country virtues, always spinning wool. The third daughter was quite ugly
and entirely given over to the bottle. The old man had named the mother of the
girls as his heir under the condition that she distribute his entire fortune
to the three girls equally, but in the following manner: first, 'Let them not
possess nor enjoy what they have been given,' and second, 'As soon as they will
have given up the property which they receive, let them bestow a hundred thousand
sesterces on their mother.' Gossip filled the city of Athens, and the mother
diligently consulted expert lawyers but none could explain to her how the daughters
could not possess what was given to them or how they might not enjoy its benefits;
likewise they could not say how girls who had nothing would be able to pay such
a sum of money to their mother. A great deal of time had been lost in delaying,
and still the meaning of the will could not be grasped, so the mother put the
law aside and appealed to common sense. To the lascivious daughter, she gave
the women's clothes and baubles, along with the silver ewers and beardless eunuchs;
the spinster received the fields and the flocks, the country estate and farm
hands, along with the cattle and draft animals and farming tools; and for the
hard-drinking daughter there was a cellar filled with casks of vintage wine,
an elegant house, and pleasant little gardens. The mother was about to give the
designated goods to each daughter with the public's general approval (since they
were all well acquainted with the daughters' proclivities), when Aesop suddenly
appeared in the midst of the crowd and said, 'If only the father were aware of
what is happening, he would be turning in his grave at the inability of the Athenians
to understand his will!' When asked to explain himself, Aesop corrected the mistake
that they had all made and told them, 'Assign the house with its furnishings
and lovely gardens and the aged wine to the spinster who lives in the countryside;
give the dress and the pearls and the attendants and so on to the ugly creature
who boozes her days away; and then give the fields and the country estate with
the sheep and the shepherds to the slut. None of them will be able to stand having
things which are alien to their way of life. The ugly daughter will sell all
the finery to supply herself with wine; the slut will get rid of the fields so
that she can supply herself with fripperies; and the one who loves the flocks
and is devoted to spinning will not hesitate to sell the opulent estate. In this
way no daughter will possess what has been given to her, and each of them will
bestow on their mother the specified sum from the proceeds of the sale.'
The cunning of a single man thus solved a problem that had eluded many others
in their ignorance. |