THE DARK VILAYET
A hunting party was returning from an unsuccessfull deer hunt, and they entered a foggy area. With every step they took, the fog became thicker and thicker, darker and darker. The terrain grew worse, harder to walk - small rocks everywhere. Everyone started loosing their nerves, cursing the day they decided to go on this hunt, cursing this blasted fog, these annoying rocks, when, out of the blue, a deep voice spoke:
"He who takes these stones shall regret it!"
Of course, everyone reached for their weapons, hoping to fight the unknown foe, when the voice spoke again:
"He who DOES NOT take these stones shall regret it!"
This left our disoriented hunters even more confused. They kept on waiting for the voice to speak agian, but nothing happened. So, some of them thought: "Well, I'm not taking any of these stones. Who knows what the heck they are!". The others thought: "Well if I'm gonna regret it, I might as well take some.". Eventually, they all agreed that staying here and waiting for the fog to clear, would probably starve them all, they decided to find their way out. And so they did. When they returned home, one of them checked his pockets and found - diamonds, emeralds, saphires, the finest gems your eyes could see. "Oh, if I had only taken more of them!", cried those who took the stones. "Oh, if I had taken at least one!", cried those who had not taken stones.
So the voice was right...