Fatherhood personified

An old legend is told about a woman who married a thief. When the couple was blessed with a son, the father stopped stealing. However, with no means to support his family, he went back to stealing. After being struck by a disease, the father passed away when the child was still a toddler. The woman then remarried, this time a businessman. The man raised the child as his own and taught him the skills of business. The child grew up to be a wise businessman. When both his parents died, the son was asked to make an offering for both his parents in a river. When he was about to drop the offering into a river, three pairs of hands came out to take the offering. The son recognized his mother’s hand and gave an offering to her. But he could not recognize which one of the other two pairs of hands was her father’s. The son then recalled the time when his mother had mentioned to him his first father. He then recognized his businessman father’s hands but was in a dilemma about who to offer the last rites. Eventually, he made a difficult choice and offered the last rites to this businessman's father. He reasoned that his first father gave him life but his second father brought meaning to his life. The tribal people often tell this legend to their children to teach them a lesson in upbringing.