Salman Rushdie's Tall Tale

As little kids, we are all introduced to tall tales in which contain a moral lesson. Jack and the Beanstalk was one of my favorites and one that assisted my learning of greed. This tall tale of Jack and the Beanstalk contained many incidences of greed such as the selling of the last family cow over magic beans instead of buying food for the family, stealing gold coins after climbing the stalk, stealing a hen, and a harp. Jack was never satisfied with was he had, or in the case, that he had stolen, so he kept it up. The third time he climbed the stalk, the time he took the harp, the giant whom lived at the top actually came down after him wanting to get his belongings back. Event though he risked his life every time he went up the stalk, it was all worth having more wealth; nothing was good enough for him.

In Salman Rushdie’s East, West he writes many short stories. For our English class we enlightened ourselves with Rushdie’s A Prophet’s Hair, a story also of greed. Hashim, a wealthy moneylender makes his fortune off people who can’t pay up in time. When he comes across a silver vial containing a single strand of hair, he undoubtedly knows it belongs to the Prophet Mohammed. He knew this vial had been preciously stolen, yet he was not about to return it to its rightful owner, the Hazratbal mosque.

Hashim can’t keep this secret to himself, so he tells his son Atta about his find. Hashim begins to turn violent and Atta ends up telling his sister Huma. After many episodes of wrongfulness committed by Hashim, the children begin to realize it’s because their father has stolen the vial out of greed and has no plans of returning it to the rightful owner. Huma then sets out with a plan to hire a thief to steel the vial away from their father.

Sheikh Sin, the thief, takes on the mission, with the rewards of Huma’s and her mother’s jewels a pure fortune. The night of the burglary Atta goes into a coma. He suddenly wakes up to yell “Thief, thief, thief!” and falls back asleep, just to wake up Hashim. Hashim runs into the hall, pitch black with a sword and accidentally kills his daughter. With guilt, he turns around and kills himself.

Just like our tall tale of Jack and the Beanstalk, greed cannot bring happiness to one’s life. Today, it’s hard to steer away from this because our society is so caught up in money, wealth and material items. Just as Rushdie has shown us, greed will only leave you in a worst situation than you were before.