There once were two farmers, Farmer Jacob and Farmer Ismail, whose farms were separated by a large swathe of land known as the grazing field that was right in the middle of both farms.
They and their families had lived on their farms for generations and generations for thousands of years.
Both the Jacob and Ismail families lived in peace with each other, except for one item of contention: whom the grazing field between both farms belonged to.
The Jacob family claimed it belonged to their ancestors. The Ismail family claimed it belonged to their forefathers.
But they were not violent people who believed in settling their differences by violence. They were decent human beings who believed in the goodness of their neighbors, which was what people liked to believe about themselves in those days.
It was also believed that the main reason for such a peaceful outcome was possibly linked to the presence of Police Constable Keepum D'Peace Um, who was always poking his nose into other people's business' while on his peacekeeping rounds, as he liked to call them, whose own family had also been around for thousands of years, keeping the peace from generation to generation.
And this was how the Keepum D'Peace Um family of police constables managed to do that, keep the peace between both farming families from generation to generation.
The head of the Police Constable Keepum D'Peace Um family would summon both the heads of the Farmer Jacob and Farmer Ismail farming families to what was known as a table talk, whereupon he would seat them down and say, 'In the interests of peace on this portion of earth, here's what I shall propose.'
'Option One. Both families draw a straight line down the middle and split the land into two equal halves, one for each family.'
'Option Two. Both families share the land, allowing their livestock-their sheep, their goats, their cattle-to wander throughout the length and breadth of the land and graze wherever they like, returning home after the grazing was done, each to its own home.'
And it was always the second option both neighbors opted for, always, from generation to generation, mainly because it involved no extra work, no unnecessary border demarcation work, no unnecessary barbed-wire fencing work and no unnecessary barricaded border crossing gate construction work on their part, it was believed.
And yes, from then onwards they all lived happily ever after, from generation to generation, for thousands of years, even until this very day, it was believed.
The End.
