the alchemist39

A card hanging in the doorway announced that several languages were spoken in the shop. The boy saw a man appear behind the counter. "I can clean up those glasses in the window, if you want," said the boy. "The way they look now, nobody is going to want to buy them." The man looked at him without responding. "In exchange, you could give me something to eat." The man still said nothing, and the boy sensed that he was going to have to make a decision. In his pouch, he had his jacket—he certainly wasn't going to need it in the desert. Taking the jacket out, he began to clean the glasses. In half an hour, he had cleaned all the glasses in the window, and, as he was doing so, two customers had entered the shop and bought some crystal. When he had completed the cleaning, he asked the man for something to eat. "Let's go and have some lunch," said the crystal merchant. He put a sign on the door, and they went to a small café nearby. As they sat down at the only table in the place, the crystal merchant laughed. "You didn't have to do any cleaning," he said. "The Koran requires me to feed a hungry person." "Well then, why did you let me do it?" the boy asked. "Because the crystal was dirty. And both you and I needed to cleanse our minds of negative thoughts." When they had eaten, the merchant turned to the boy and said, "I'd like you to work in my shop. Two customers came in today while you were working, and that's a good omen." People talk a lot about omens, thought the shepherd. But they really don't know what they're saying. Just as I hadn't realized that for so many years I had been speaking a language without words to my sheep.