Why Is There Suffering on Earth? : Osho story

There is an old story from Tibet about two brothers. Their father died and left them with one hundred horses. These horses were used to transport passengers.

As the father was dying, he said to the elder brother, “You are intelligent, and your younger brother is still small. You can divide the horses as you wish.”

So the elder brother made a decision. He kept ninety-nine horses for himself and gave only one horse to his younger brother.

The people around them were shocked. The neighbors asked, “What are you doing?” The elder brother replied, “The boy is still young and does not understand much. How will he manage ninety-nine horses? So I will take ninety-nine and give him one.”

The younger brother soon grew up and lived happily with his one horse. He did not need to hire servants or spend much money. He himself would ride the horse, take passengers on trips, and return. His food and needs were easily taken care of.

But the elder brother was always worried. He had ninety-nine horses and many responsibilities. He had to hire servants and build a large stable. Sometimes a horse would fall sick, sometimes something would go wrong. Sometimes a horse would run away, sometimes a servant would disappear. At night he could not sleep because he was always anxious and troubled.

One day he came to his younger brother and said, “I have a request. Please give me your one horse.”

The younger brother asked, “Why?”

The elder brother replied, “You have only one horse. Even if you lose it, it will not matter much. But I have ninety-nine horses. If I get one more, it will become a hundred. It is important for my reputation and honor. Our father had one hundred horses, so his honor is also at stake.”

So the elder brother took the horse.

From that day, the younger brother became even happier. Earlier he sometimes had to care for the horse—if it became sick, he had to bring medicine; if it became tired, it would refuse to move. Now even that trouble ended.

He became his own master. Now he would carry loads himself and even carry people on his shoulders to take them on journeys.

But the elder brother became even more worried. Now he constantly feared that one of the hundred horses might die, run away, or get lost. This thought troubled him day and night.

Marpa, a Tibetan mystic, used to tell this story often. He said, “I have seen only two kinds of people in this world. The first are those who depend so much on possessions that those possessions begin to trouble them. The second are those who are so full of inner strength and confidence that things cannot trouble them.

The second kind of people are very few, which is why there is so little joy on earth. The first kind are many, which is why there is so much suffering on earth.”