The Ditch between Brothers

Two brothers used to do farming together. They had lots of respect and love for each other. After being together for about forty years, they separated after having a quarrel due to some misunderstandings. Few days later, they started fighting on another issue and decided they would not look at each other in future. They divided all the assets among themselves and started living at extreme ends of their farm. This enmity kept on growing with time and the younger brother dug a ditch in the middle of the farmland.

One morning, a carpenter came to elder brother asking for some work. The elder brother said, "I have very important work for you. As you can see my neighbor, who is actually my younger brother, has dug this ditch between us. I want you to build a huge wall so that I do not get to see his face." The carpenter agreed to do it.

The elder brother provided all necessary materials to carpenter and said, "I am going to the town for some work and would return by evening. Please complete this task of building the wall by the time I return." The carpenter nodded in agreement.

When he returned in evening, he felt shocked to see that instead of wall, the carpenter had built a viaduct across the ditch and his younger brother was crossing over that viaduct. Before the elder brother could say anything to carpenter, his younger brother came near and hugged him. With tears in eyes, his younger brother said, "I am so grateful to have you as my brother. I had dug this ditch but you are so kind that you made this viaduct in order to bridge the differences we had with ourselves." Hearing all this, tears started flowing from eyes of elder brother too.

After coming back to senses, they found that the carpenter was going away. The elder brother tried to stop him and said, "Stop! I have much more work for you." The carpenter smiled and replied, "I would have loved to stay. But I have to build many more such bridges." Saying this, carpenter went ahead on his way.