a story i read a long time ago...

by an italian writer called giovanni boccacio, entitled the three rings.

to summarize, there was a sultan and a rich and wise guy. the sultan was jealous of the wise guy and called the latter to his palace and wei2 nan3 the latter. the sultan asked the wise guy a question lah.

“which of the three great religions is the true one – is it the jewish, the moslem, or the christian?” (NB: the spelling is inherent from source.)

then, the wise guy told the sultan another story..


there was this rich family with a lot of wealth and assets. the heritage was handed down from father to son, and it was symbolised by the handing over of a special ring. well, the system worked well until it came to a worthy man with 3 equally worthy sons.

the man would soon be coming close to death and be required to choose a worthy heir. of cos, the 3 was equally worthy and the man couldnt come to a decision. so, he hired a craftsman to duplicate 2 other copies of the ring, and handed a ring each to his sons on different occasions.

when the man died, the 3 sons each produced the same ring and claimed to be the rightful heir. the story goes that they argued and argued but the dispute was nv resolved.


the wise guy after telling the story asked a sequence of questions to the sultan. and the sultan was awed and decided to consult the wise guy on all matters.


at different points in life, the story meant a different thing to me. i used to think, why should i believe specifically any 1 of the 3 sons? listening to all 3 would suffice since they are equally worthy and the rings carried little significance. in fact, it’s because of the attempt to find out which ring is true, that we have so much conflicts today.

but then i realise that the father had created the two duplicates not out of convenience. but he created so that, the sons can individually lead and carry on his role. if the father’s intent is for the 3 to lead together, he wouldnt have duplicated the rings. he wanted pple to follow and place trust on either 1 of the 3 sons, cos they are worthy in their unique way. there is only one true ring. but each son is carrying it.