The Man and the Thorn

Once there was a man with a thorn in his brain. It was nestled in a part of his head where it did not move, so he could only barely feel it, but nevertheless it was there.

The man lived in a horrible city which was full of dirt and poor people. The man was lucky, because he had a nice house, but he didn't really like the surroundings. Every day he used to drive down to the seaside, where he would park his car and get out and take a walk. There he could walk along looking at the beautiful sparkling sea and picking up tiny, pink shells. Sometimes fish would swim near him, in the shallow parts of the water.

As the seasons changed the weather got windier at the beach. The man tried to enjoy himself, but whenever he was there the wind would blow against his head and the thorn would be driven deeper into his brain. He hadn't noticed it much at first, but every day as he walked next to the sea the thorn began to hurt him more and more.

One day as he was walking, the fish who swam near him in the shallows saw how much pain he was in, and so they said "Why don't you pull the thorn out? Pull it out, and then you will feel better!"

The man replied "I don't want to. Pulling the thorn out will hurt a lot, and I don't want to hurt a lot. If I leave it in then it will only hurt a little bit."

The next day as the man was walking the fish saw that he was in more pain than the previous day.

"Pull the thorn out," they said, "it may hurt a lot, but after that it will get better and you will be well again. If you leave it in it will continue to hurt you more and more each day."

But the man refused, because he was scared of the pain it would cause him. He kept walking at the beach each day until finally the wind blew so hard that it drove the thorn into a vital part of the man's brain. He died and fell into the sea, where the fish nibbled at his body until his flesh was all gone.