The Aunt Who Chose Her Nephew
Vikram-Betaal Stories · 1 min read
Two widowed sisters lived together with their young sons in a remote village terrorized each year by a demon who demanded a child as tribute or else destroy the entire settlement. When the terrible lottery fell on their household one year, the sisters realized in horror that a choice would have to be made between the two boys.
The younger sister, mother of one of the boys, broke down completely, unable to bring herself to offer either child to such a fate. It was the elder sister — aunt, not mother, to the second boy — who finally stepped forward and, weeping, offered her own son to the demon rather than her sister's child.
When asked by the horrified village why she had chosen her own flesh and blood over her nephew, she explained through her tears: her sister, having lost her husband already, could not survive losing her only son as well and would surely die of grief herself, leaving no one behind at all — but she herself, though it would break her heart forever, could go on living afterward, and could raise her sister's remaining child alongside whatever she had left of her own life, ensuring at least one full family survived the tragedy rather than two households utterly destroyed.
Moral of the story
The most painful sacrifices are sometimes made not for oneself, but to save someone else from a grief they could never survive.