Giving credit where credit is due

A young boy was very sick, and his parents were quite alarmed. Every day he was getting worse. The poor mother was almost prostrate with grief. Finally she said, “The doctor that we have presently is useless. Let us take our son to another doctor.” This doctor had tried a few medicines, but he could not cure their only son.

The husband said, “Give the doctor time. I am sure our son will be all right in a week or so.”

The wife became annoyed. She said, “No, I do not want to listen to you. I have another idea. I say no more doctors. Let us go to an occultist instead. An occultist just gives a talisman, and it cures the person.”

The husband said, “No, I do not believe in those things. It is all superstition.”

The wife said, “You have to believe in them because this doctor is not able to cure our son.”

The husband said, “The doctor told us that the cure would take two weeks. Now one week is over. There is still another week to go.”

The wife said, “I do not want to listen to you. I do not want to wait even one more day.”

“Please give me another chance,” implored the husband. “I am going to the doctor, and I shall bring back better medicine for our son.”

The husband went to the doctor to get better medicine. To his wide surprise, the doctor’s wife said, “He has gone to the occultist for a talisman because he has been sick of late.”

Then the husband proceeded to the occultist’s house, not to take a talisman, but to meet with the doctor. When he arrived, he saw the doctor coming out holding a talisman. The husband said, “Doctor, what about my son? My son is not getting better.”

The doctor said, “Oh, I have some new medicine.” From his bag, he extracted a bottle of medicine and gave it to the husband. He said, “This new medicine will definitely cure your son in one week.”

The man was so happy that he had been able to get some very powerful medicine for his son. With tremendous joy, relief and pride, he went home. He said to his wife, “Look, this is new medicine.”

The wife said, “I do not need it, and I will not give it to him.”

The husband said, “What? You cannot trust me? You cannot trust the doctor for one week? Just give it to our son and let us see. After one week, if he is not cured, then I shall personally go to the occultist and bring back a talisman.”

The wife said, “You do not have to do that. I have saved you the trouble. I have been to the occultist, and he gave me a talisman. You can see it around our son’s neck. And our son is definitely going to be cured in a week. I asked the occultist. He said that at the outside it would take a week. Otherwise, it will take only a few days.”

The poor husband was caught between the two cures. Finally he said, “Let us have faith. You have faith in the occultist’s talisman, and I will have faith in the doctor.”

The wife became cross. “Still you have faith in that useless doctor?” she said. “Can you not see that our son’s case is only getting worse? That doctor is nothing but a charlatan!”

With all the patience at his command, the husband said, “I told you, it is a matter of one week. Let us use the medicine.”

But his wife was extremely stubborn. She said, “No! You have faith in your fake doctor. I will have faith in my real occultist.”

The husband said, “All right. Let us stick to our respective faiths. In one week, when our son is completely cured, you can give all credit to the occultist, and I will give all credit to the doctor. Let us be happy by having faith in our own methods.”

As fate would have it, the son was cured in a week. The wife proudly said, “It is all due to the occultist’s talisman.” And her husband privately said, “I know it is all due to the doctor’s medicine.”