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Why Are You Crying?

(Traditional story from Papua-New Guinea)

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long, long time ago, there was once a man called Nothing. He was very miserable and never helped anyone.

Worse still, if anyone asked for his help, he got angry.

But one day, Nothing died and his wife was deeply saddened, because Nothing had been very good to her. She was very much affected and was very hurt that no one, no man, no woman, mourned the death of her husband. No one cried. So one day, she took a decision: she gathered together all the sweet potatoes that she had in her house and cooked them. When they were ready, she put them all in a basket, left home and handed them out to all the children she found playing in the street. In exchange for the sweet potatoes, she asked all the children to cry for her husband, Nothing.

So when you see a child crying and you ask them: “Why are you crying?”, don’t be surprised when they reply: “For Nothing.”