“Happy Birthday Rania! Wake up darling,” Rania’s mum said while kissing her forehead.

“Good morning mum, thank you so much!” Rania said while rubbing her eyes.

“Now hurry up as I and your dad are waiting for you downstairs! We have a surprise for you!” Rania’s mum said and walked out of her room, while Rania, who turned 13 that day, sat on her bed wondering what could her present be. She quickly washed her face and changed into her new dress then went downstairs.

She saw both mum and dad waiting for her at the dining table with a cake and a beautifully wrapped small present. She hugged her parents and cut the cake then she unwrapped her present. To her surprise it was a beautiful red ruby ring which she had seen the other day at an antique shop, but as it was too expensive to be bought by her pocket money, she had left it after admiring it. Her mum had noticed that Rania had loved it so much so she bought the ring as a present.

Rania wore the red ruby ring instantly. The rest of the day went well with her friends and family celebrating her birthday.

A couple of days later, she was sitting on her bed and she unintentionally began to rub the ruby on her ring while thinking that it would have been awesome if she had a matching necklace too. Within seconds, she felt something bulging in her lap ... she unfolded the wraps of her dress and saw a beautiful red ruby necklace.

She was simply astonished! She slowly picked the necklace and wondered ‘Where did this necklace came from? How could this match with my ring! Well ... wasn’t I thinking some seconds ago that it would have been awesome if I had a matching necklace? I should call Sarah, maybe she can solve this mystery.’

Rania picked up the phone and called Sarah, her best friend who was a nice girl but too wise for her age. When Sarah received the called, Rania narrated everything to her.

Sarah was silent for a few seconds, then asked, “What were you doing at the time when the necklace appeared in your lap?”

“I was sitting on the bed and yes, I was rubbing the ruby on the ring,” Rania narrated.

“Rub the ring again and wish for something nice that may not hurt anyone or that is not illegal,” asked Sarah.

Rania thought of having her favourite ice-cream as she rubbed the ruby and suddenly she saw her favourite ice-cream appear on her side table. She jumped with excitement and told Sarah about it.

“So it is clear that when you rub the ruby stone and wish for something, you get it. This means it has magical powers! My friend, you have to be very careful now because these magical powers are beyond human understanding and you are too young to know what is good and what is bad for you. I can only say don’t use it for bad purposes,” said Sarah while Rania vowed to only use it for good deeds.

Rania was too excited to have such a ring; first she thought of telling her parents but she feared that they would take it away from her, so she kept it a secret. She couldn’t resist the temptation and got almost everything that she wanted for years by using her red ruby ring until one day when it was her classmate Alina’s birthday. Alinna distributed candies among her friends. Rania loved the candies so much that she wanted more, but was embarrassed to ask Alina.

She saw Alina keeping the leftover candies in her bag and had a cunning thought ‘why not steal the candies?’ So when everyone was engaged in chitchat, she rubbed her red ruby ring and wished to get the leftover candies from Alina’s bag. The candies fell in Rania’s lap and she quickly hid them from sight.

Sarah had seen Rania doing this deed. She went to Rania and said, “I warned you to never use it for a bad purpose. But you did!”

“Sweetie, it’s okay. The ring grants wishes and it didn’t say bad or good!” said Rania thinking Sarah was jealous of her magic ring.

Later that day, Rania wanted a doughnut so she rubbed her ring and wished for a doughnut, but she was surprised when nothing happened. Rania tried it many times, but the ring was not working at all. She began to cry and called Sarah and told her everything.

Sarah reminded her about her warning. Rania felt ashamed of what she did to Alina. So the next day in school, Rania went to Alina and returned the candies she had stolen and also apologised for her greed. Alina forgave her.

Thing became normal for Rania as the magic in the ring had disappeared. And she learned a very important lesson that ‘Greed makes you weep’.

Published in Dawn, Young World, December 3rd, 2016