Donkor rushed home to his wife, Dalilah and entered the house with haste and excitedly said, “I have an important message for you”.
Dalilah looked horrified at the dusty sandy footprints upon her clean dust free carpet and scolded him saying, “Do not enter here making this place untidy, the message can wait, I don’t want to hear anything you have to say until you firstly remove your filthy shoes and clean your feet before you come into this house”. Donkor was ushered outside and muttered to himself – ‘if she believes that grains of sand are more important than what I have to say, then indeed the message can wait’.

Each time he tried again to enter the house, Dalilah angrily shooed him away as she busily cleaned the house from top to bottom of his dusty entrance earlier.

That evening, Dalilah’s sister and her large family arrived at the house. She had not seen them for many years for they lived far away and had travelled many miles. From his position outside the house, Donkor watched as each member of the family entered the house bringing much dust and sand upon their feet and clothing, but not a single word was uttered from the excited wife. Soon, she begun to realise that she not been to market that day having spent the entire time cleaning the house. She had barely enough food to prepare a meal to feed her sister and her sister’s husband, and all their children. That night, they all went to sleep exhausted and hungry.

In the morning, a very irritated and tired sister having spent the entire night dealing with her hungry children, woke early announcing that they were all leaving for they had a long journey ahead of them and would need to set out early for they intended to visit other relatives in the area. This greatly upset Dalilah wanting them to spend some time together and she felt bad for not having offered her sister and family, nourishment and comfort during their stay.

As Donkor and the very upset Dalilah watched them prepare to leave, the sister’s husband called over a small boy, “Are you a fast runner?” – the small boy proudly nodded – “then I will give you 20 LE if you run onto the next village, find a man named Yusof Kamil and let him know that his brother and wife will be arriving at sunset tomorrow.”

Dalilah watched the boy run off, turned and looked open mouthed at her husband – “Was that the message you had for me yesterday when you entered so hurriedly into our house”.

Donkor replied, “Yes – But rather than let me speak, you placed more importance on grains of sand than the message I carried willingly to give you. For the price of 20 LE, you have once again a house full of sand, and a displeased sister who felt that you cared nothing for her, having made no preparation or provision for her arrival.”

And the Moral of the story is:
Do not place your importance above another’s importance, for all that is important serves purpose only to the one that makes it so.