STORY TIME || The Downfall of Agu: Pride, Deception, and Justice

In a village far away, there lived a man called Agu. Agu was the best hunter in the village and that was why he goes by the name Agu (meaning: Lion). Agu would always boost in gatherings, at palm wine joints or with his friends, saying that he's the best hunter in the whole village. Nobody can challenge him. Little did he know that some people were jealous of him, while some thought if he'd not stopped he might get richer than they are.

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One day, Agu went for his hunting trip and that day he never came back the same. While he was chasing an animal, he fell and injured his legs badly, which caused him not to walk again and that was his last hunting trip ever.

Agu had a brother who helped him with house activities and some other things. Suddenly, his brother died. He was left with no one aside from his late brother's wife and children to help him.

With nothing to do, Agu started stealing from the villagers. Anything that comes his way, he steals, and people hardly suspect him because he couldn't walk. The worst part is, whenever he goes to the market to buy a chicken from the money he receives from people, he will announce it from the market to his house. Everyone will know Agu bought a chicken. He does this so that even when he's seen eating chicken you wouldn't suspect him. Using this format, he continued to steal more chickens and other things. When asked he would refer them to the day he bought it from the market, and he even announced it.

As time went on, Agu started stealing from his late brother's wife, who sells snuff (meaning: ground tobacco). After preparing her snuff to be sold at the market, when she leaves for the farm, Agu would sneak in and steal it. This continued on for a long time, that even when she asked Agu he would deny ever seeing or knowing anything about it, feeling like he'd been intimidated and oppressed because he couldn't walk.

One day she came up with a plan to add pepper to her snuff. So, she bought pepper from the market, fried it until black, then she grinded it. After that, she added it to her snuff and kept it where she normally keeps it.

When she left to see a friend, Agu entered the house, called out, but no one responded. He then went to where she normally keeps the snuff and took everything. Little did he know that it had been mixed with pepper. He went to his house, sat down, he took a pinch and inhaled the snuff (ground tobacco), again and again.

And just the third one, he fell to the ground, shouting,"My nose ooo, my nose ooo. The shouting became so loud and attracted people far and near. The villagers gathered and kept asking him what happened. He couldn't explain. Then he started shouting," My brother's wife has killed me severely. So, the villagers sent for the late brother's wife and when she arrived she burst into laughter, knowing that it was Agu that had been stealing from her all this while, he went further to confess other crimes he committed.

MORAL LESSON🔻

This story teaches us that pride, they say, can bring a man's downfall, and also create enemies through envy and jealousy. In the case of Agu, he boosted to everyone. Little did he know that life would turn around for him. Also, if you want to know the true character of someone, sometimes, it is when they are facing hard times. Instead of trying to survive, he went into stealing.