The trouble began after two women spent an evening at a hotel. They had travelled together and were preparing to return home when they met a quiet stranger who appeared to be another traveller.
There was nothing about him that immediately suggested danger.
He spoke to them normally and behaved as though he were simply looking for company on the journey. The women, having no reason to suspect him, allowed him to accompany them.
As they made their way home, however, one of the women began to notice something strange.
The stranger did not seem entirely natural.
She watched him carefully but said nothing. Perhaps she was imagining things, she thought. The road was dark, and the shadows made everything appear unusual.
Her companion seemed to have similar doubts.
Still, neither woman wanted to accuse their companion of anything without knowing the truth.
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They continued their journey.
When they finally reached their home, the stranger followed them inside.
The women offered him a place to sit, and for a while, nothing happened.
Then the atmosphere changed.
The women began to notice details that made them increasingly uncomfortable. The stranger’s presence seemed unnatural, and the more closely they watched him, the more certain they became that something was wrong.
Eventually, they discovered the truth.
Their visitor was not a living man.
He was a ghost.
The discovery terrified them.
They had unknowingly brought a supernatural being into their home.
For a moment, the women could think of nothing to do. They were frightened and uncertain whether the ghost intended to harm them.
Running away seemed difficult.
Confronting him seemed even more dangerous.
They needed a plan.
Instead of allowing panic to take control, the women began thinking about what they knew concerning ghosts.
They remembered stories and beliefs about spirits and their connection to the places where they had been buried.
Then one of the women suddenly had an idea.
She quietly shared it with her companion.
The plan was simple.
They would frighten the ghost.
The women waited for the right moment.
Then, suddenly, one of them shouted:
“Fire! The cemetery is on fire!”
The ghost immediately reacted.
The women repeated the warning.
“The cemetery is burning!”
Something changed in the ghost’s expression.
He no longer seemed interested in them.
He looked frightened.
The women realised that their trick had worked.
The ghost was worried about his grave.
Without stopping to question the women, he rushed away.
He abandoned the house and hurried back toward the cemetery to discover whether his grave was really in danger.
The women watched him disappear.
Only then did they allow themselves to relax.
They had been terrified just moments earlier.
Now they were astonished by how quickly their plan had worked.
The supernatural visitor who had seemed so frightening had been defeated without a fight.
They had not needed weapons.
They had not needed physical strength.
They had simply discovered what frightened him and used it to their advantage.
The women began laughing at the strange turn of events.
The ghost had come into their home intending to frighten the living.
Instead, he had been frightened himself.
His greatest concern was not the women.
It was his own grave.
The women knew that they had been fortunate.
Had they panicked, they might not have thought of the trick.
Had they confronted the ghost directly, they might have placed themselves in greater danger.
Their quick thinking had given them a way out.
The experience also changed the way they thought about courage.
Before that night, they might have believed that courage meant being fearless.
But they had been afraid.
Very afraid.
Their courage came from thinking clearly despite their fear.
They had recognised that the ghost had a weakness and used that knowledge instead of trying to overpower him.
The story soon became one they could tell others.
Whenever people discussed ghosts or supernatural encounters, the women remembered the mysterious stranger from the hotel.
They remembered how he had followed them home.
They remembered the fear they felt when they discovered what he really was.
But most of all, they remembered the moment they shouted that the cemetery was burning.
That was the moment everything changed.
The ghost had been terrifying while the women believed that he had all the power.
But once they discovered something he feared, the balance shifted.
The frightening visitor became the frightened one.
The women also learned that fear can sometimes make people imagine that they are helpless when they are not.
A dangerous situation may still contain an opportunity.
Finding that opportunity requires calmness.
The women did not know whether their trick would work.
They simply tried the idea that seemed most likely to frighten the ghost.
It worked immediately.
And so, what began as a frightening encounter ended almost like a joke.
The ghost had entered their home.
The women had been afraid.
Then they discovered that he was even more concerned about his own grave than they were about him.
He rushed away, leaving the women safe.
Neither woman forgot the lesson.
When faced with something frightening, running blindly is not always the best answer.
Sometimes the better response is to stop, observe and think.
The women had looked beyond the ghost’s frightening appearance.
They had asked themselves what might matter to him.
The answer was his grave.
Once they understood that, they knew exactly what to say.
The ghost had been able to frighten them because he was mysterious.
But mystery becomes less powerful when people understand their opponent.
By the end of the night, the women had learned that courage and intelligence can work together.
They had survived not because they were stronger than the ghost, but because they were clever enough to find his weakness.
And the ghost?
He returned to his grave in a hurry, frightened by the possibility that the place he cared about most had been destroyed.
The women were left with a story they would never forget.
A story about a ghost.
A story about fear.
And, above all, a story about how two frightened women managed to make a supernatural visitor afraid of his own grave.
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Moral Lesson
Fear does not always have to be defeated with strength. Staying calm, thinking quickly and understanding a difficult situation can provide a way out of danger.
Knowledge Check
1. Where did the two women first meet the mysterious stranger?
They met him at a hotel while travelling.
2. What did the women eventually discover about the stranger?
They discovered that he was a ghost.
3. Why did the women become frightened?
They realised that they had unknowingly brought a supernatural visitor into their home.
4. What idea did the women use to frighten the ghost?
They shouted that the cemetery was on fire.
5. Why did the ghost run away?
He became afraid that his own grave was in danger and rushed back to the cemetery.
6. What does the story teach about courage?
It teaches that courage does not mean having no fear. It means remaining calm enough to think clearly and find a solution even when frightened.
Source
Adapted from “Dife Dan Simityer,” documented in Kont ek Lezann Volim 6 (1999), Institut Kreol, pp. 37–50.
