god or greed?

A story was told of a village, very many years ago, when young men were honest and girls were virgins.

The village was blessed with fertile land, lustrous green fields, and a stream that cut the beautiful landscape into the Northern and the Southern parts. It was supposed that the god of this village had blessed them with many natural resources and beautiful girls. They had just the perfect climate and were  predominantly farmers. This village became the resting spot for travellers on very long journeys. They weren't extremely wealthy, but they had just enough food for each day. The hospitality of these villagers was definitely worthy of note. They were deeply spiritual and followed the dictates of their god through his high priest to the letter. One of these dictates was that whenever they went out to war, they would destroy all of what was in the enemy territory, and will not covet their property. Failure to do so would anger this god and according to the prophesy, he would destroy their farmlands, and divide the village along the stream, causing the southerners to fight the northerners. Peace would elude them and prosperity will be a vague story. There would be wailing and crying in every home because of the death of children. Wow! what  bad news! These villagers had a history replete with conquest and victories. The story has it that it was because of their strict adherence to the dictates of their god that they won these battles. As a matter of principle, the chief warrior hailed from the Northern part of the village while his assistant hailed from the south.
A day came when these villagers went out to war as they had always done. They had chanted their war songs and mentally psyched up themselves. Of course, they won. However, just when the battle was declared over and the soldiers were about to retreat to the village, the chief warrior walked into the room of a missionary from a foreign land. He paced across the room floor then walked slowly as if he had seen something. At the table over looking the small window to the east of the room, he saw a cup, but this was different. he definitely was oblivious of what the glass cup was. such ignorance! It was a tumbler. "what's this mysterious object", he thought to himself. "This must have fallen from the gods". he took a peek outside the hut to be sure no one was coming. Almost immediately, the chief warrior snatched this "mystery gift" and made to walk away. Just then, his assistant bumped into him., "what's that in your hand? no!don't tell me. did you? yes you did". those were the senseless rantings of the assistant. "you know what our god said about this". Just then, the chief brought out the tumbler from under his skin bag. His assistant was profoundly amazed by such beauty.

An argument then ensued..."I'll share it with you"said the assistant. "No, you shall do no such thing" said the chief. back and forth, back and forth went the argument. Push came to shove, and the soldiers gathered around their chiefs. The assistant over powered his chief and snatched the tumbler out of his hands shouting "we must share it equally". He gave vent to his anger and smashed the tumbler against a wall, it shattered. the chief was horrified. The beauty had gone! he drew out a knife and stabbed his assistant. the assistant warrior was dead with a knife in his heart. The southerners took this as an assault on their ancestry and began reprisal attacks. back and forth, the daggers went. Arrows flew swiftly. Certain  soldiers ran to the village and assaulted the women and children from either side of the stream. The village was in confusion, An inter-village war had turned to  an intra-village war. Blood flowed down the mountains, children cried in horror as they watched their own deaths. Women were raped! lustrous green fields were a horrific sight of dead bodies and a nauseating stench of decaying bodies. This village had become a horror movie. years will not erode the memories of this bloodshed.
The week after, the high priest stood on the rock that emerged from the middle of the stream and shouted with his might..."who divided us? a prophecy or our anger,our greed or our god?"
YOU DECIDE