the stone in the road

Life always has various opportunities, but it forever nestled closely into the biggest
obstacles, in the difficulties that you may have to deal with it in oder to know whether it
really brings good value for you or not. I remembered in Tuesday evening, I have read
“The obsatcle in our path” in my class. During the story, there are three main characters:
the wise king, the hard-working peasant, and the heartless merchants and courtiers. An
anonymous peasant with his kind heart and generosity, began his life-changing adventure
with his diligence and hard work silently, spent straining hours to push the stone out of
the roadway. “The obsatcle in our path” by unknown author, is a short story was taken
from “the Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books”, published by Jack Canfield and
Mark Victor Hansen in 1993. In this story, you would have a new fabulous point of
views about lesson in facing obstacles in your life. If I have one world to describe this
story, immediately it will be “action”. Every time you are faced with an obstacle on the
road, you have a choice. A choice to look at that obstacle, do nothing and grumble. Or,
to choose your behaviors and take action to remove the obstacle. So to speak, the story
teaches a lesson in the advantages of taking action on what is blocking your path.
Once upon a time, there is a story told of a king who lived in a beautiful and peaceful
country across the sea. He was a very wise and lenient king, he allways try all best to find
out the best solution to teach his people good habits. Sometimes he did things which
seemed to them strange and useless; but all that he did, he did to teach his people to be
hard-working and careful. At that time, he mused that “whose people complain and
expect others to fix their problems for them. The good things of life are given to those
who take matters into their own hands.” Because the king really wanted to see how
behavior and attitudes of both officers and people in his country head with difficulties
and non-personal problems. One night, while everyone else slept, he ordered his men to
place a huge rock in the road. They placed the rock and then he hid behind a fence, and
waited to see what would happen. He wonder if anyone would try to remove the rock
away. Non out of the king's expectation, one by one just crossing over the boulder with a
lot disapointed and upset. Some merchants with their luxury and grandeur . They went
straight ahead and did not see the stone, but struck thier foot against it and went
sprawling in the dust. They became angrily about the lazy people who had no more sense
than to leave such a huge rock in the road. Then they walked away, not once thinking that

they can easily move it by themselves. Even the current Prime Minister of this country
and his army of soldiers also ignore the rock. “Well, whoever saw such carelessness?” he
said, as he turned his team and walked around the stone. “Why don’t these lazy people
have that rock taken from the road?” And so he went on complaining of the uselessness
of others, but not touching the stone himself, turning to a different direction so as not to
collide with the stone.


The king felt so angry, but he did not say anything. He persevered waiting for a man to
lift the rock out of the way. His waiting in effort was not wasteful when a few mintutes
later, a peasant was carrying a load of vegetables on his shoulder. He was a hard-working
man, and was very tired, because he had been busy since early morning untill the night.
But he said to herself, “It is almost dark. Somebody may fall over this stone in the night,
and perhaps a a pregnant woman and the liitle chidrents could be badly hurt. I will move
it out of the way.” He was using his full strength to lifted the stone until he moved it from
its place. After finishing, so surprise, he found a big bag under the rock with a purse.
Inside contained countless gold, perhaps enough to live for his rest life after. Upon it had
a letter from the king, he said that this purse belongs to the one who moves the stone. The
peasant smiled happily, then wrote a few lines of reply, put the letter down next to the
stone and went on. The king was very curious, waiting for he to leave, then proceeded to
open the letter. Did you know the letter that the peasant sent back to the king? He wrote
that "Dear Sir, I don't know who you are but thank you very much for the money you
give me. But I will not use that money, my life and current job have been enough to
support me. This money, I will give to the poor people in my village, they are poor and
need this money more than me. It look like I help you to do the kindness work. Thanks
indavance for your support” No longer after, the peasant was conferred the title of brand
new Prime Minister, and the heartless Prime Minister was removed and pushed down as a
civilian because of his nonchalant attitude, did not take care closely to people's life. The
country from now on, the people's life was warm and happy when there was an wise king
and a generosity minister lead the country.