This blog seeks to capture the essence of Persian culture through passages of song lyrics, poetry, jokes,
anecdotes, and random tidbits. Please feel free to leave comments about how any item does or does not
meet the measure of what "Persian" means in your life. Click here for additional description.

The Rock of Regrets

A caravan was travelling through the night and stumbled upon the side of a mysterious-looking mountain that the caravan's leaders could not identify. So they approach the old man who was travelling with them with a few pebbles off the mountain to see if he can recognize it.

The old man, who is apparently identified in books of religions from Judaism to Islam (not to mention Mormonism) as the Prophet Job, examined the pebbles and declared "It's the Rock of Regrets."

Hearing this, most of the men in the caravan decided to ignore the pebbles and the mountain. "Why should we burden our heavy loads," they figured, "with the Rock of Regrets." A few though, take some of the smaller pebbles with them.

The caravan then continued to travel through the night and by morning had reached a place far from that mysterious mountain. With the benefit of sunlight, the men open up their loads and made a startling discovery. The pebbles, which Job had identified as a Rock of Regret, had turned out to be diamonds!

An angry mob of all the men in the caravan descended on Job to chastise him. Job, however, maintained his ground. "It's the Rock of Regrets," he said, "Those of you who didn't take any of the Rock regret not taking any of it, and those of you who took some of the Rock, regret not taking more."

"So, it's the Rock of Regrets."

Whatever the significance of Job (Ayoob) or this story may be in any religion (my understanding is that this particular story is based on a story in the Koran though it may exist in other religions as well), the story, which was found in a children's storybook in Iran, is consistent with the Persian values of being content with what you have and not being greedy for more.

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