The Golden Cow
Story transcribed and translated by Amna Al-Motawa
Edited by Patty Paine
One day, Hamad the son of a sheikh, was at the market and saw a cow made of gold. He liked the cow very much, so he bought it. When he returned home he put the cow in his room. Food began to disappear from his room. Hamad told his mother about the disappearing food, and his mother said that she thought that the servants must be stealing the food. Many days passed, and food continued to disappear from the Hamad’s room. Finally, Hamad decided to hide in his room to see if could catch who was stealing his food. He hid in his closet, and to his great surprise a beautiful girl emerged from the Golden cow. The girl began to eat his food. Hamad jumped out from his closet and demanded to know who she was, and where she came from. She tearfully told him her tale:
“Once upon a time, she said, there was a man who married many times, and each time he married, his wife died before she was able to have children. Finally, however, he married again and his wife was able to have a daughter named Sara. His wife died shortly after Sara was born. The man and Sara lived alone.
The man was rich, and Sara was beautiful and smart and she and her father were very close. When Sara turned 12, the father told her that he was going to get married again. The man married an evil woman who didn’t like the Sara and was very cruel to her. The stepmother pretended to be nice and kind when the father was there, but when he was gone she would abuse Sara. She complained to her father. She begged for him to make the evil woman stop being cruel, but they father did not believe his daughter.
Sara was desperate for help, so one day she went to a goldsmith and told him about her pitiful life and how her stepmother was torturing her. She asked him to make her a Golden Cow she could hide in. She asked him to keep the cow in his shop and let her hide in it until someone bought the cow. She begged the goldsmith and offered to pay a lot of money so the goldsmith agreed. Then one a boy bought the golden cow and took it home and she was very happy.”
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Hamad was very moved by the Sara’s story and promised to protect her.
Hamad had to travel with his father, but before traveling he asked his mother to keep putting food in his room. His mother asked him why she should do such an odd thing, but he said that he couldn’t tell her, and begged her to just keep putting food in his room, so she did.
A few weeks passed, and Hamad’s cousin Abdulla was preparing to get married. His family asked if they could have the Golden cow to use as decoration at the wedding ceremony. At first, the mother refused, but then she decided to be generous and give them the cow.
They carried the cow to the Abdulla’s house. The girl was inside the cow, but she was sleeping while they moved her and didn’t realize she had been moved. She emerged as usual from the cow to eat. She was shocked to see she was in a new place and that another young girl was in the room. The girl was Abdulla’s bride. The bride beat the girl and forced her from the home.
Sara collapsed crying in the road outside the house. An old woman saw her and asked her if she needed help. Sara told her about what had happened, so the old woman decided to take Sara in as her own daughter since she had never had a daughter of her own.
Hamad returned from his travels, and learned what had happened to Sara. He was sick with worry and sadness. His family tried to help. They brought doctor after doctor in to treat him. They sent him to other countries to see doctors, but nothing worked.
One day, a poor man passed by the Sheik’s house and asked him for money. They told the man about their sick son and the man said he could heal Hamad. The family agreed to let the man stay in the house to see if he could make their son better.
The poor man asked the family to prepare dough for bread. He then took the bread to the country. Every day he stopped at a different house and baked the bread in the house’s oven. He returned with the baked bread and gave the bread to Hamad to eat.
Eight months passed and still Hamad was sick. The family decided that the poor man was a liar and asked him to leave the house. The old man said that he had only one more house in the country visit to make bread. It was the house of an old woman. If that bread didn’t work he promised he would leave.
After the boy ate the bread from the last house he began to improve. Every day he got a little stronger until finally he was strong enough to travel to the house to thank the old woman. When he knocked on the door Sara opened the door and they cried with joy to be reunited.
They were soon married and lived together in love and happiness.
