Big Quiet House

There once was a man whose house was very small. It was cluttered with things from wall to wall. Everyday he would say, in a miserable way, “I need more room”. One night he tossed and turned in his bed. His wife’s snoring and his children’s giggling annoyed him. He covered his ears and grumbled, “There is too much noise! If I had a big quiet house, I’d be able to sleep!”

As he lay awake, he thought about the wise old womna who lived at the edge of the village. “perhaps She can solve my problem”, he muttered. He threw off his covers, jumped out of the bed, and went to seek the wise old woman.

He knocked impatiently at her door. She slowly opened it and said, “it is the middle of the night, why are you here?”
“I cant sleep”, complained the man
“My wife snores the whole night through. My children annoy me by giggling, too.
What is a tired man to do?
Can you possibly solve my problem?
I need a big quiet house!”

She said, “I can solve your problem. Just do as I say.”
The man agreed
“If you have a chicken, some sheep, a horse, and a cow," she said, "bring them into the house with you."
"That's a silly thing to do," thought the old man. But he did it anyway. Now his house was already small, and with all those animals in it, there was no room at all. He returned to the old woman and cried, "I need more room! The animals are so noisy I can't think!"
"Take all those animals out of your dwelling," she replied.
When he had put all the animals comfortably back in the barn, the man went into his house. To his amazement, it suddenly looked remarkably bigger! Without the animals inside, his house was now quiet too!
Now, the man said to himself, “next time I moan the whole day long, complaining about what is going wrong, I will stop and count my blessings first. You know… it could always be worse”. And with a sigh he fell asleep.

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