WHEN the world
was still very young and new, people were kind and good. They loved life
and they cared for each other. At that time there was no such
thing as a lie (yalan / كاذب ). People told the truth. They had no reason (sebep / السبب ) not to tell the
truth.
But then, one day, a man named Abdul told his wife a lie. It was a
very, very, very small lie. It did not seem important, but soon his wife
learned that he had not told her the truth and she was very sad. When her
neighbors asked her why she was sad, she explained (açıklamak / لشرح ) what happened and
then they were sad too. The wives went home and told their husbands. After that, everyone was sad. Soon, God learned why His happy
people were suddenly (aniden / فجأة ) sad. He called the people together and said, “Abdul, I
forgive you for the lie you told, but none of you must ever lie again!
If anyone ever tells a lie again, I will drop one small grain of sand (kum tanesi / حبة رمل )
on to the earth for every lie that is told!”
The people listened to God but thought, “A grain of sand? That is
nothing! You can hardly (zorlukla / بالكاد) see a grain of sand.” So, all the people quickly (hızla / بسرعة )
forgot (unutmak / لتنسى ) what God had said. After many years, little by little, lie by
lie, the Sahara Desert came to be, but no one remembered why.