Arman was a neat and smart young man, but very inactive and lazy. He was as slow as a sloth and wasted his time. No one ever wanted to work with him, nor be his partner. He loved to spend his time lying on his cosy bed and have his favourite meal spread out on the table.

This disturbed his parents so much. They would forcefully make him work at his bakery for his earnings, but Arman was just too sluggish and the business didn’t do well.

Arman had a very loyal friend. His name was Asad. He was the opposite of his friend. He was punctual, accommodating and energetic. Because of these qualities, he had a huge and successful business. He had many workers who worked in his company. He would always pay them well and there were never problems.

One day, when Arman once again got rejected by a company where he had applied for a job as his income from the bakery wasn’t much, he decided to take help from Asad. He reached Asad’s house on his bicycle. He was amazed by the huge, stylish and modern house Asad lived in. It had a giant pool, a garage and most of the rooms had large glass windows. Feeling kind of jealous, Arman rang the bell.

A servant came and took him inside into the living room. The couches were so comfortable and the wallpapers were just so attractive. Soon Asad came and welcomed him. A maid brought them coffee and some snacks. Asad then thanked the maid and asked Arman why he came here.

“First of all, you are so lucky living in this huge place!” Arman burst out in awe.

Asad laughed and said, “Well, it takes a lot of hard work. You should also work hard, like me!”

Arman got a little angry, but then he spoke, “Well, can you tell me how I can also be a hard-working and rich person like you?”

Asad was very smart, indeed. He then came up with an idea.

“How about if I give you half of my earnings, a few diamonds, a house and a car? But to earn that, you will have to come here after three hours, at 8pm exactly. Deal?”

Arman excitedly accepted this suggestion and left the house, thinking how easy this deal was. When he reached home, he kept this a secret from his mother, as he wanted to surprise her.

He imagined how rich he would be. “I am so blessed to have Asad as my friend. Now I can live in a luxurious house alike him. I will have all my servants do the work for me! I will have nothing to worry about, I will just relax,” he started daydreaming.

When he looked at his watch, he realised that only an hour had passed, he had more time than expected. “Should I go early? Nah, Asad had said eight o’clock exactly,” he spoke to himself. Arman then picked up a cookie and munched.

He looked at the time again. There was still more than an hour left. He wondered if he should go to his bakery and see to his business that he had left to a young helper. Or many he should clean his dirty bicycle and fix the wheels, or just go early to claim his prize. His eyes began to droop, so he decided to take a short nap.

Arman woke up, yawned and looked at the time. “Oh my! I am one hour late!”

He quickly rushed to his bicycle and rode to Asad’s home. “Oh no, oh no! I hope I can still get my prize. I wish I should have not wasted my time,” he mumbled to himself. Soon, one of the tyres of his bicycle got punctured by a sharp rock.

He started to panic. He had no money to pay for a taxi, so he just ran towards Asad’s house. When he finally arrived, he saw that the lights of Asad’s house were off. He wondered if Asad was asleep. But Arman didn’t care because he was worried about losing all the money that was to come his way. Without letting himself lose his courage, Arman rang the doorbell.

Asad opened the door and saw Arman panting. His jeans were dusty and his face all sweaty. Although Asad knew Arman was late, he called him in asked him to freshen up.

After Arman washed up in a luxurious bathroom, he came to Asad and said, “Asad, I know I am late, but it’s fine. I know you will give me my prize. Where is it?”

Asad smiled kindly and put his hand on Arman’s shoulder, saying, “Arman, do you think you can claim your prize? You were lazy and came late. This is why you never succeed in life. You always think you have time, but you waste it on useless things. Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.”

Arman then realised that he had been wasting his time. If only he had come early and waited outside Asad’s house instead of daydreaming and sleeping, he could have become rich! Arman understood why he had been so unlucky during his life.

He said sorry to Asad and promised that he will try not to waste his time on useless things.

Seven months later, Asad decided to visit Arman, since he felt bad for him and they had hardly met during this interval.

When he arrived at Arman’s bakery, he saw that the bakery was gone and there was a nice restaurant in its place. He went inside and saw Arman standing there. They were both pleasantly surprised at seeing one another.

“What happened to your bakery Arman?” Asad asked, confused.

“Well, I recently converted my bakery into this restaurant, and all this happened thanks to you,” Arman replied with a smile.

“Wow Arman! This is just great! I am so proud of you!” Asad, hugged his friend with joy.

Arman thanked Asad for his help, saying, “You were so right, my friend. Since the day you advised me not to waste my time, I stopped being lazy and worked hard at my bakery. My business started to grow and many people visited my bakery. I soon got so rich that I bought a huge house and opened this restaurant. This is also doing very well and is very popular. I am here the whole day and late into the night till it closes. I am so glad that you made me see how wrong I was to waste my time. Now I have so many friends too and my family too is very happy!”

It’s true that time flies and never comes back. So be careful about what you do. Never waste time, for a person who wastes time is the poorest person on earth as he is wasting away his most precious possession.

Published in Dawn, Young World, July 17th, 2021