Long ago, in the highlands of Eritrea, among the Tigrean people, there lived a humble family who kept a small flock of chickens. Among them was a lively little hen, busy and tireless, always scratching the earth in search of seeds, worms, or grains. She was the pride of the homestead, for her feathers gleamed in the sun, and her clucking filled the yard with life. Yet, as fate often hides its sharpest edges in plain sight, the hen’s diligence would lead her not to plenty, but to doom.
One day, the family received important visitors. Hospitality was sacred, and no guest was ever allowed to leave without being served a hearty meal. Yet the house was poor, and there was little food to offer. So the head of the family decided:
“We shall prepare the chicken for our guests. She will make a fine dish, tender and worthy of honor.”
The decision was made, but a problem soon arose. The family searched for the sharp knife used for slaughtering and dressing animals. They looked in cupboards, baskets, and beneath mats, but the knife was nowhere to be found. Without it, they could not kill the hen, and the guests waited expectantly.
At last, in frustration, the family released the hen into the yard. “Go then!” they said. “Your life is spared for now, for we have lost the blade.”
The hen, unaware of the danger she had just escaped, happily strutted into the dust and began to scratch the ground with her nimble feet. She pecked, scraped, and dug, scattering bits of soil behind her. Then, with a sudden kick, her claws unearthed something hard and gleaming. It was the very knife her masters had been searching for.
She had uncovered her own undoing.
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The family gasped at the sight. “Here is the knife at last!” they cried. And without hesitation, they seized it. The hen, bewildered, barely had time to flutter before the blade came down. Her life ended swiftly, and she was prepared as a meal for the honored guests.
The people of Tigrean villages tell this story with a proverb: “The chicken scraped out the instrument that killed it.” It is a saying repeated when someone, through their own actions, hastens their downfall.
Moral Lesson
This Tigrean folktale warns of the strange ironies of fate and the hidden consequences of our own deeds. The hen, in her innocence, uncovered the very blade meant to take her life. So too in life, a person may sometimes prepare the path for their own misfortune without knowing it.
The lesson teaches caution and humility. Effort and diligence are virtues, but without awareness and wisdom, even our best actions may harm us. Fate is a sharp knife, sometimes, it is our own hands that dig it from the earth.
Knowledge Check
1. Who owned the hen in the story?
A family in the Tigrean highlands of Eritrea.
2. Why did the family decide to kill the hen?
They wanted to prepare a meal to honor their guests.
3. What stopped the family from killing the hen at first?
They could not find the knife needed for the slaughter.
4. How did the hen uncover her own doom?
While scratching the ground, she unearthed the missing knife.
5. What proverb comes from this story?
“The chicken scraped out the instrument that killed it.”
6. What is the main lesson of the folktale?
That one’s own actions, even innocent ones, can lead to personal ruin.
Source: Tigrean folktale, Eritrea
