Ancient Arab tale: The marginal mule;Marginal mule

              The Accounting Historians Notebook, Fall 1996 17
AN ANCIENT ARAB TALE
submitted by
Kenneth S. Most
This ancient Arab tale has obvious relevance to management accountants.
It has been translated from the French.
THE MARGINAL MULE
In those days there lived in Jerusalem a
muleteer named Ali, who owned four
splendid mules. Each week he set forth
along the banks of the Jordan river and
across the desert. His mules heavily laden
with goods belonging to local merchants.
One day, at the very moment he was
about to signal his departure by a vigor­ous
blow with his stick to the rump of the
lead animal, he saw his wife Fatimah
approaching with a donkey which, she
told him, she had found in front of their
tent. It was a gift from heaven! Ali, full
of joy, momentarily thought of transfer­ring
to the newcomer a part of the load
borne by each of his four mules. But the
sun had already appeared above the
dunes, and he did not wish to delay.
Thus, one could see that day a convoy of
four heavily-laden mules and a fifth ani­mal,
carrying only its ration of fodder and
tripping along the path, always in the
margin of the river's bank.
Ali named it his "marginal mule." He
was particularly pleased by its felicitous
appearance because whenever he felt tired
he could take a ride. The animal was
strong and did not complain.
"Why," said he (Ali, not the donkey)
"should I not keep this gift from Allah
for my personal use"?
And so it was. And when Ali arrived at
the market he was warmly greeted as the
Prince of the Muleteers.
Alas, one day the donkey vanished as
mysteriously as it had appeared. The
countryside was searched in vain, and Ali
was in despair. He had grown accustomed
to his free ride and unwilling to walk.
Suddenly he had an inspiration. Choosing
the finest of his four animals he named it
"the marginal mule," and distributed the
load to be carried, as heavy as before,
equally on the backs of the other three.
The pace of the convoy was slower, but
Ali was a proud and happy as before.
Sometime later, Ali had to take a
cargo to the town where lived his wife
Fatimah's mother, and she insisted on
being taken along. Gentleman as he was,
he could not bring himself to make her
walk, and he was unwilling to lose face
by walking himself. But he was a
resourceful man. He selected a second
marginal mule and placed his wife upon
it. Alas, he had a great deal of difficulty
in arranging his load on the two remain­ing
mules, but at last, the task com­plete,
they set off along the river's bank.
Or at least the two marginal mules did,
for the two overloaded beasts could
hardly take the first step. They were still
in sight of the tent when the two mules
lay down, fully resigned to die under the
rain of blows which fell upon them.
At that moment Ali heard a voice
from heaven, which cried out to him:
"Kalpas, Kreba, Laseh" signifying "Look
out, your mules are about to die!" Ali
understood and hastened to relieve the
beasts of their burdens, giving them
water to drink and speaking gentle
words of encouragement. He then dis­tributed
the load over the four mules,
and gave Fatimah the choice of walking
or staying home. Then he set off on foot
at the head of the convoy, singing—to
give himself courage.
And from that day forth, no marginal
mule has ever been seen on the routes of
Judea.
THE END