Count Till One Hundred

Being tired after the war, Genghis Khan, the famous Mongolian Emperor decided to go hunting with his generals. Bringing bows, arrows, and riding horses, they entered the forest. Accompanying them were soldiers who brought a group of hunting dogs. The trained eagle belong to Genghis Khan also tagged along. This eagle was useful in hunting. It would fly high, go around preying. It also guided the Emperor and its team back to palace.

Well, it had been a while for them hunting, but they did not get many. Half way through the expedition, the Emperor purposely separated himself from the team heading to a valley. The hot weather made the Emperor thirsty and he ordered the eagle to find a shortcut back to palace. On the way, the Emperor found pure water drops between rocks. He got down from the horse immediately and took out his silver cup. He then collected it drop by drop and at the time he was about to drink it, he heard some sound from the sky. In no time, the eagle flew down and hit his hand such that the water was spilt out of the cup.

The eagle then flew around and stood on the rocks. Afterwards the emperor took his cup again and started to fill it with water. Once again, when he was about to drink, the eagle flew towards him and hit his hand. Encountering this, the Emperor got very angry. While filling the cup, he took out his sword and said, "Eagle, this is the last warning for you!". At the moment he was about to drink, the eagle did the same thing. With full force, the Emperor slew the eagle and it died instantly.

The Emperor did not care about it. He took his cup which was stuck between rocks. Although the cup was hardly reachable, thirst made him climb up the steep rocks. With much effort, he finally reached a small hole where the water came out from. The Emperor's thirst suddenly went off as he saw the most poisonous snake died lying nearby the hole. His heart became heavy as he thought of the dead eagle which had tried hard to save him. The Emperor walked down the hill and brought the eagle back to palace. His inner heart screamed, "Today I have got a very sad lesson, I will not do anything out of my emotion when I am angry!"

How many times do we go back to our room and regret because of angry hastily to our kids, dad, mum, husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, or friends? Our uncontrolled emotion is sharpened and it hurts our beloved-ones. Let us learn from the unfortunate eagle's death. Let us improve our self-control.

Remember what Thomas Jefferson said, "Count till ten before you do thing, and when you are very angry, count till one hundred".

Read this article in Indonesian.