Bible story

[kimzotic]

Does anyone know of a Bible story/parable: Where a man asks his 3 sons to completely fill a room? One son fills the room with sand, the other with straw(maybe?) and the final son places a candle in the room & fills the whole room with light

[lynneuk74]

Not a Bible story, sorry. Have read the whole thing several times and definitely isn't in either the old or new testament.

[Quizmonster]

I found this on a website...

"You remember the legend about a businessman who needed to decide which of his 3 sons should take over his business. He gave each son 4 coins and told them to buy whatever would best fill an empty store room for him. At sunset they all came back. One had bought a bale of straw which covered the floor. Another had bought a bag of thistledown which likewise covered the floor. The third son reported, "I gave 2 coins to a hungry child. I gave a third coin to the temple. With the fourth coin I bought this." It was a candle, and it filled the room with light!"

It is certainly a parable, Kim - or legend, as the opening line above says - but it is not from the Bible.

[jake-the-peg]

Attributed here to George Shannon

http://accelerateu.org/assessments/Ela4/cleverest_son.htm

[Octavius]

I think it is an Ethiopian folktale called "The Cleverest Son" in a book by George Shannon called Folktales from Around the World.

[tellboy]

Quizmonster,

I bet Son 3 was not exactly flavour of the month with Sons 1 & 2, pass the sick-bucket Eh !

[jno]

the set-up does reflect the parable of the talents in the Bible - I suspect it may be a common situation in folk tales, giving people an equal start and observing different ways they fulfil their brief.