An Enlightening Tale

Surely the beggar had no teeth left by the end?!

Sorrentinos The Enlightening Tale is simply written yet displays the power of the reader to fill in the pictorial gaps. Im not sure if the possible symbolism of the ring works. Why a ring? The story feels like a fable, with the message just be good and goodness will come to you. The motivations of Josermina, are droused in paradoxs, why should she give and re-give the ring, when she is descibed as Very miserly? WordBlindMan

very interesting story,a story about honesty.

And the moral is? Should have sold the ring the silly beggar!

Entertaining but somewhat lacking compared to Sorrentinos other works

This is my first disappointment from Sorrentino. Luckily, Ill get over it in the next 2 seconds. It was only the last line that evoked a "cheesy" conclusion. -Carina

So lemme get this straight! The lady lost her ring making bread, put on another ring, than lossed that one, then put on another one and lossed that one as well?! It was either a really rich stupid woman with a million rings and who didnt care to lose them all, or just a piece of inadequate writing. Im afraid im going to have to take the latter. [email protected] Bring your threats!

This was really poor. And not humourous. Reworked, it belongs in the childrens category, with all due respect.

to silly at the end. not one of my better readings.

I thought the story was cute. And for whoever it was who posted that previous comment about a the woman having a million rings...it is the same ring used over and over to get the beggar back so he never goes hungry. I liked the story.

Ridiculous, I think this is one of the best pieces. And if you all dont get it, too bad.

seriosly, eventually the butler would realize that the whole thing kept happening and give the guy fresh bread to keep it from happening, I mean come on. That was my first thought. Now to me it seems that he is cynically pointing out how unlikley all the stories with similar themes to this are

I think the lady put the ring in the bread on purpose so she would be able to give him bread everyday. However, she is supposed to be miserly, so why does she want to give the beggar the bread?

what did he eat the hard bread with, as he broke a tooth each day..... so, he cannot have lived for long...

to live a happy, honest and contented life. i think thats what its all about... and not about the teeth. :)

This is a beauiful, spiritual story. Is it possible that none of the reviewers know what a parable is???

it seems the lady isnt so much miserly but her butler is, because he thinks she would want him to be. its a nice tale of honesty, something which some people lack.

A good parable story, until the second hard bread. The author could have explored the story piece with how the ring got to the bread all the time to do justice to the storys wisdom. A parable is a parable until wisdom is consumed too much -like the hard bread. More hard bread=lesser wisdom.

I personally think this story has an amazing underlying moral. It shows that if you do good, and be honest, youll be rewarded. It also shows that money doesnt always equal happiness. The begger couldve easily taken the ring and made his life rich, but he took more happiness from doing the right thing! And he was rewarded with what he needed most for survival!

there was some interesting turn of events that could have lead to much more but it gets its point across and has a good moral in the end.

i think J. X. put the ring back in the bread everyday so the man can come back. I also think she wanted to help him in some way, without being noticable. maybe it made her feel good to help someone in need.

If you are always honest to others than other will be honest to you and well be more likely to help you out.

i think the beggar is a very honest person and has morals because most people would keep the ring for themself but he was honest enough to return the ring or rings everytime.

I thing very interesting story , a story about honesty .If you are always honest to others than other will be honest to you and well be more likely to help you out .And you would help the poorer than you .
By Lucia 15y HCMC Vietnam

So obviously the woman was trying to help out the begger. She put a ring into the loaf of bread. Duh, sell it so you are not a begger anymore. Silly begger.

Its not humor,I have no idea what the author want to express.Is the beggar honest,or silly?which one is the silliest one?I guess the author want to say being honest youll get reward,but it isnt a wise way.

Hmmm....it was OK, but I have to say that, having loved everything else Ive read previously by this author, this is the first piece Ive been a bit disapointed by. Id be interested to know if it was an earlier work or something, because it doesnt seem to have what Im beginning to think of as his trademark funny, mad style.

I think after awhile our hero would probably run out of molars. Maybe she was getting a commission from a dentist whatever the reason it was a very good story which I enjoyed reading. Sometimes we can over analyse a story so much that we lose the art of emersing ourselves in fiction. Nothing destroys imagination quicker than a skeptic nit-picker.

This was a great story, but not as good as the others. Maybe beggar should receive something better.

This story was obviously about the rewards of honesty. Since he was honest he lived happily ever after. I liked it.

An Enlightening Tale, was a pretty good fable. Being honest is the master key to live. I wish everybody were like this beggar, that way, well never be hurt or feel miserables. Honest its the best action that a human can do. Also if the beggar will sell the ring, he will never live happy, cause he will stop to have a fortune day.

Seems sad, actually, that the popor beggar had to go through the pain of losing teeth and all he got was a piece of bread. And when was the butler going to catch on about the hard loaves? But good story anyway. =]

About real happiness and worthful life.
The begger was poor but he didnt feel unhappy. To him, It was honesty that made him real happy rather than lots of money. We can learn what is real important in our life.

Wouldnt the beggar be angry that he kept breaking his teeth? And why does the rich lady just keep losing her rings? There are a lot of unanswered questions that distract the reader from the story because they are confused.

I think this story has essential moral. I guess the moral which the story sais is HONESTY. Children may have to learn this moral in their first step. Its very important to become as good person. However this story doesnt have interesting final.

I thought the author did a great job of illustrating that you dont need money to be happy. The end did get sort of redundant though. The objects in the bread could have been different things, still expensive ones though. Otherwise it doesnt make sense as to how she got the ring into the bread so quickly. Overall the story is great and the meaning is really powerful.

a great story to teach about honesty and great things in life.

Nice tale. I think the lady deliberately kept dropping her rings in the bread just to help the beggar live by. I think she was delighted with his honesty.

This story tell us about sincerity and honesty. The poor man was not ambitious. He could sell the ring, but actually the money wouldnt be enough to live for much time. His honesty helped him to live until he passed away. Please, think about it.

This story tell us about sincerity and honesty. The poor man was not ambitious. He could sell the first ring to have the money, but I am sure the money wouldnt be enough to live much time. His attitude shows that honesty and sincerity are very good attitudes. Please, think about it.

I think the ending was weak. Too sharp. Otherwise nice idea and well told.

so so story. cute but a little disappointing.

I guess Im being silly but I am distracted with following the ring. The ring must have been in the loaf for at least a day before the beggar received it. We know it was day-old bread. Each day he returns a ring and receives the next in a matter of minutes. How many rings are there? How complex a system must there be to perpetuate the pattern?

Wow, it amazes me how many ignorant reviewers there are. Obviously many of you didnt get the point of this PARABLE. It doesnt matter why or how the ring got in the bread. The moral of the story has nothing to do with that. Some of you are completely focused on the little details of this PARABLE and have totally missed the bigger picture. Its called an abstract thought process, please get one.

If he had sold the ring, he could only live with money for sometimes ! Honesty is beauty ! Dont you think Thomas ?

I felt this fable was tought many things. Of course, it is important for us to be honest. But more important things are others, in my opinion.
A little money make us short happy days, but honest makes us long happy days , and so on.
Other hand, if the begger had lots of experience or educatonnal knowledge, he can make his life become wonderful, I felt. What is important, I think now.

Frangkly there were not big things to teach us in this fable. The things the beggar did in the story just knocked the door to ask a loaf of bread, experienced finding out some jewelries in the given bread, then went back to the mansion which gave bread to him for sending back the jewelries. Through doing these over and over, he could just live without dinning problem. Thats all we can see.
I couldnt approve that the beggar lived happily by this story. Of course, I also consider that Honesty is one of the most important virtue. However, after finished reading this fable, we need to think about that What is the most important thing in life.

I dont think that the moral of this story is that honesty gives you a happy life, i think hes saying something about how the world works, some people have money and others dont, and they have lived their whole life this way, and sadly, there is no escape

I think this is a delightful story. What I gather from this story is some people are happy living a simple life. The beggar was quite happy quencing his hunger.There are some people with no ambition and are happy just getting by.

It is a good story. It also has a good lesson, honesty pays off