08/10/2026
■THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SHADOW■
In the village of Umudi, there was a man called Sunday.
Sunday was poor. Not ordinary poor — he was the kind of poor that even poor people pity. He is a poppa. His roof was leaking, his wrapper was torn, his farm was not growing. He borrowed garri to eat. He drags palm kernel with children for a meal.
One market day, he was sitting under the big Udara tree, ( African star Apple tree) complaining loudly.
"God, why me? Why am I like this? Others are progressing, I am going backward!"
As he was talking, an old man with a white beard, carrying a small black bag, sat beside him.
The old man said: "I heard you. I can help you. I will buy something from you, and you will become rich."
Sunday looked at him: "Buy what? I have nothing. Even my fowl I have sold."
The old man said: "You have a shadow. Sell me your shadow for 7 years. For 7 years, you will have no shadow. But I will give you money, your farm will grow, your business will boom. After 7 years, I will return your shadow, and you will give me back double of what I gave you."
Sunday laughed. "Shadow? Who needs shadow? Take it!" Who shadow help?
The old man opened his black bag, brought out a small mirror, pointed it at Sunday's shadow on the ground. The shadow shook and disappeared — it entered the mirror. The ground where Sunday stood had sun, but no shadow.
Instantly, the old man gave him a small purse.
"Inside this purse, money will never finish for 7 years. But remember our agreement. After 7 years, I will come back."
Sunday went home. He opened the purse — N50,000 inside. He went to buy something, put his hand back — another N50,000. It never finished.
Within 1 year, Sunday built a storey building. He bought 3 buses. His farm produced cassava like magic. He became Chief Sunday. People called him _Sunday Money Never Finishes_.
But there was a problem.
Children started running away from him. They would whisper: "Mummy, that man has no shadow!"
Elders in the village became afraid. "A man with no shadow is not a living man."
His wife noticed that when he stood in the sun, there was nothing on the ground. At night, she started dreaming that her husband was walking without touching ground.
In the 6th year, he wanted to marry a second wife. The beautiful girl's family refused. "We cannot give our daughter to a man who has no shadow. It is an abomination."
Sunday started to be lonely. He had money, but no one wanted to sit near him in church. Even his own children were afraid to hold his hand in the sun.
He remembered — the 7th year is coming.
Exactly 7 years after that market day, the old man returned. Same Udara tree. Same black bag.
Sunday ran to him: "Baba, take your money, give me back my shadow! I am rich now but I am not happy. People call me ghost!"
The old man smiled: "I will give you back your shadow. But you must give me double. Where is double?"
Sunday said: "Take all the money! Take the buses!"
The old man said: "I don't want money. When I gave you money, you had no shadow. Now you want shadow, you must give me what money cannot buy."
Sunday asked: "What?"
Old man: "Give me 7 years of your sleep. For the next 7 years, you will not sleep. You will watch others sleep, but you will never sleep again. That is the price of selling what you don't understand."
Sunday was confused. Money without shadow made him rich but lonely. Now shadow without sleep — what kind of life is that?
He cried: "Baba, is there no other way?"
The old man said: "There is one way. Go and confess to your village that you sold your shadow. Return all the wealth that the shadowless money gave you to the motherless and the poor. Then your shadow will return for free. But you will be poor again."
Now tell me — if you were Sunday:
*Will you choose to be RICH without a SHADOW, or POOR with your SHADOW? And what would you do with 7 years of no sleep?*
Many people in this life are like Sunday — we sell our peace for money, sell our character for fame, sell our family for business — and later we want to buy it back, but the price has doubled.
What would you have chosen if you were Sunday?
