The Brothers who Wanted Power

There were two brothers who had ambition.  Once their parents died, they set out through means fair and only a little bit foul to acquire as much power and possessions as they could.

It was a hard struggle.

They made enemies.

At last they owned all that they could see and were the men in their community whose decisions mattered.  There were limits to what they possessed, of course.  Two men can only manage so much.  And there were limits to their authority–they had enemies, they could only push so far without provoking a reaction.  But they had all the reasonable targets for their ambition and as much property and power as they could reasonably expect to hold.  They could at last relax a little.  They held a great feast to mark the completion of their aims.

A few days after, the lean brother came to the stout one.

“Brother,” he said, “I am giving it all up.  I am leaving everything behind.  I am going to go to a far country with only the clothes on my back, where no one knows me, where I have no credit nor reputation.  I am going to start with nothing there.  Everything here is yours unless you want to come with me.”

“What? Of course not”

The stouter brother was appalled.  It would be extremely difficult to hold his position with just him.  It could be done, just barely, but it would require unremitting toil.  And he would miss his brother.  He brooded for a bit and then burst out in an exclamation.

But his leaner brother had been brooding too, because he also burst out in an exclamation.  It was the same exclamation, and at the same time.

“How can you be satisfied with so little?”