The Black Sheep Fable And The Value Of Honesty

The fable of the black sheep is a story written by Italo Calvino. Like many of his wonderful tales, this one is also full of imagination. It’s a story that includes a profound and baffling message that leaves no one indifferent.

The fable of the black sheep tells that in a remote corner of the Earth there was a village where everyone, absolutely everyone, was a thief. Each of the inhabitants goes out at night. He carried a flashlight and a false key used to pick locks. With these instruments, he ransacked the neighbor’s house.

The next day, each one went home. And found it empty, of course. None of this was unusual for the inhabitants of this village. After all, everyone knew they lived with thieves and couldn’t expect others not to steal from them. However, this distant village lived in complete peace and harmony. It was a chain. Everyone stole everyone, so no one was left without possessions.

In the same way, in commerce you bought and sold through scams. Both those who bought and those who sold deceived each other. At the same time, the government only knew how to deceive its subjects. These, in turn, deceived the state all the time. The inhabitants were happy to live in that place.

The Fable of the Black Sheep and the Honest Man

In the fable of the black sheep, there is a point at which something breaks with established normality. In this case, the person who begins to change the situation established in the village is an honest man. He suddenly arrived in that village and, instead of going out to steal at night, he stayed at home, reading a book and smoking a pipe.

The thieves arrived close to his house, but as they saw the light on, they decided not to approach it. Some of the inhabitants began to starve. If they couldn’t steal, the chain was broken and someone was left without possessions. So they decided to talk to the honest man and ask him to reconsider his attitude. He was hurting everyone. If he didn’t want to steal, that wasn’t a problem. But I needed to let others steal.

The honest man understood the situation. And from then on, every night he left the house and went to the river. It left the house free for others to feel confident to go in and steal. However, he didn’t want to be a thief. So, in less than a week, his house was completely empty.

breaking the balance

According to the fable of the black sheep, the attitude of the honest man began to undo the entire balance of that village. As he refused to steal, there was always some inhabitant who had the house intact the next day. Then some people started accumulating more than they needed.

At the same time, whoever was going to rob the honest man’s house found it empty. So I couldn’t eat again until the next night, when I could rob another house. In this way, rich and poor began to exist. Some accumulated, while others were always at a loss.

Quickly those who had accumulated many possessions decided that they no longer wanted to be robbed. But they also didn’t want to stop stealing because they could get poor. So, they decided to pay those who had nothing so that they wouldn’t be stolen. And then the contracts began, with salaries and bonuses so that everything would be very clear.

The end of the black sheep fable

With the changes, many people were confused. They didn’t know what else to do. To remind them of what their roles were, jails and the profession of police were created. Thus, those who had accumulated many assets would not leave their assets in danger either.

Despite all this, the robbery has not disappeared. Everyone kept stealing, but now the rules of the game were different. Some people didn’t work and paid others to steal. But the rich could not be robbed, otherwise the offender was taken to prison.

No one understood why things had changed so much. But they had to adapt because they had to live on something. And what happened to the honest man? Simple: he starved to death. He was the only person who refused to steal and also the only one that no one could understand. And so ends the fable of the black sheep. Any resemblance to reality is coincidental.