13 September 2006

The Most "Foolish" Traveler in the World

This is a story from Fruits Basket. It's a nice animé that i just finished watching. I really wanted to cry but i just held my tears back...T_T

By the way, this story is narated by Momiji-kun. After reading, I would appreciate if you posted a comment about your opinion. Actually, the Momiji had more comments on it himself, but I really want to know what you think. I got this from http://brymac.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_brymac_archive.html

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Once upon a time, there was a foolish traveler who had gone on a journey.
Why was he foolish? Well, because he was fooled by everyone he met!

"Please, some money for medicine...?"

Everywhere he went, people made up all kinds of sad stories to tell him, and the traveler fell for every one of them.

"I have a sick younger sister..."

"I don't have money to buy seeds to plant in my fields."

Pretty soon, his money, his clothes, even his shoes had been cheated away from him.

But the foolish traveler was always glad to help. And he always told the people the same thing.

He said: "I wish you happiness."

But by this point, though, the traveler was completely naked, and with nothing left to cover himself, he decided to leave the main road and travel through the dense forest, where no one could see him...

But soon, he was discovered by the goblins that lived in the woods. The goblins wanted to eat the traveler's body, so they begged and pleaded, and used
kind words to try and trick him... Of course, the traveler was fooled.

First, he let the goblins eat one of his legs. Then an arm. Then more and more... Before it was over, all that the traveler had left was his head. He'd even given his eyes away to the last of the goblins... And as that last goblin was eating the traveler's eyes, he turned and said

"Thank you, traveler. In return, I leave you this present."

What the goblin left was a slip of paper, with the word "fool" written on it. The traveler couldn't see it. He didn't know what it was. Even so, tears began to flow down his face.

"Thank you," he said. "This is the first present anyone ever gave me. I'm so happy. I'm so happy. Thank you."

Even without his eyes, he cried and cried, great tears of joy. Then, the traveler died, the smile still on his face.

And that's... the end of the story.
Is the traveler really foolish?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

OH! *cries* This is one(I have many) of my favourite parts of fruits basket. It is so heart-wrenchingly sweet.. It's hard to say much more than it wholly inspires me! So tender.
Thank you for posting this!
I will definitely save this pge to my favourites.

*joy* m(_ _)m Thank you.

Unknown said...

That is so sad! I don't really like the anime, so I read the Manga instead. But in the manga of Fruits Basket, Momiji just mentions it. I don't know if he really tells the story in the anime, but I was curious, so I looked it up.
When I read this story, I nearly cried myself! It is so sad how poeple take advantige of kind hearted people like the traveler. I do not think that the traveler is foolish, but blinded by the kindness in his heart! He does not want to see the evil in other poeple. I think that he is happiest not seeing it anyway.

voided.alchemis said...

laraugh,↲No one really took advantage of him. He knew what was going on. He just wanted to please everyone. Its not that he was fooled that made him the fool, but that he wasn't, and acted as if he was.

Unknown said...

oh my gosh, i remember that part. it made me cry so hard, now i tell all my friends about it when they act foolish so they can see it too. hen i felt really bad for Tohru, and poor little Momiji totally knew what the story was talking about.

Anonymous said...

I think that the traveler was too naive to doubt the villagers and goblins. However I do agree with voided.alchemis I believe that he was not a fool for giving everyone all that he owned because he just wants them to be happy. Even if he saw the evil in others as laraugh said I do not think that the traveler would have acted any differently. The traveler truly is a selfless and kind-hearted person and momiji did a great job comparing the traveler to tohru.

Unknown said...

"Is the traveler really foolish?"
Damn right he was. His actions were not charitable, they were self destructive.

If nothing else, think on this: for every person that took advantage of him, there was another person who actually needed his aid. Instead of helping people in need, he helped a bunch of deceitful, unscrupulous assholes.