“Go my precious son. Go and learn the ways of the people from the east” The King told the Prince. “Listen and learn and bring back with you those things that will enhance our land. Bring back knowledge and technology. Bring back wisdom.” And with that the King bade his son goodbye and off the Prince and his entourage went to the kingdom of the East.

After 1 whole year the king had not heard from the prince and he so sent one of his courtiers off to the East to find him. After a few months the courtier retuned with grave news.

“Your Royal Highness, the prince has fallen in with the people from the East. Their customs are now his. He has changed and become like them. He says to tell you he does not wish to return.” The king was devastated and immediately dispatched a second and higher-ranking courtier to bring home his son. After a few months he too retuned with similar bad news. “Your Royal Highness, the prince has chosen to live with the people from the East. He has adopted their way of life and has asked me to tell you that he no longer wishes to come home”

Courtier after courtier the King sent in search of the prince in order to bring him home but still he chose to remain living with the people from the East.

Finally in an act of desperation the King offered a large reward to anyone in his kingdom that would bring his son back. The only stipulation was that the Prince had to return voluntarily. Years and scores of attempts later and still the Prince resisted all attempts at being persuaded to return home.

Then one day out of the blue the prince returned with a young man from one of the villages in his kingdom. On presenting the young man with his reward the King asked, “Son, how were you able to convince the Prince to return. So many before you had failed and yet you accomplished the seemingly impossible. Tell us your secret, please”

“Your Majesty, may I share a story with you?” the young man asked the King.” For this story will help you to understand how I was able to return with the Prince” “Certainly” replied the grateful sovereign.

“Many years ago in our village there lived a young boy who was known by everyone as “Chicken Boy”.” The reason he was called “Chicken Boy” was because he used to live naked in the village chicken coop with all the chickens. He would behave just like the chickens, sleeping where they slept, eating where they eat, and scratching where they scratched. Whilst his mother wept for her son’s plight the rest of the village laughed. The boy’s mother and family had tried all manner of means to break the boy free from his life as a chicken, but nothing worked. Neither bribes nor prayers. Nothing worked!

This went on for many years until one-day the boy’s wise old uncle came for visits. Having been told of his nephew’s predicament he made up his mind to free the boy from his “chicken cage”. The wise old uncle proceeded to remove all of his clothes and joined the boy in the coop with all the chickens. The boy’s mother wailed in dismay as now not only was her son mad but so too her brother.

Meanwhile back in the coop, the wise old uncle approached the young man saying. “Cluck! Cluck! Cluck! Did you know that in parts of Africa there are chickens who stand and walk just like humans? We don’t have to be like this lot of ignorant chickens, why don’t we try walking like those chickens in Africa? Soon the wise old uncle and the boy were walking around the chicken coop just like humans. A day later the wise old uncle told the boy that there were a group of chickens in far Eastern Europe that wore clothes just like human beings and with some encouragement, telling the boy that they needn’t be like the chickens in the coop, both he and the boy donned their clothes. Later he told the boy about a group of chickens in South East Asia that ate food and slept in beds just like human beings and with his encouragement within a few days, the boy known as Chicken Boy was soon reintegrated into the village.

Your Royal Highness” The young man said completing his story, “That is how I was able to bring home the Prince. I lived with him, I did his life, I ate and drank and socialised just like him. Slowly I opened up his mind to the ways of our life in your kingdom and within a few weeks he was ready and willing to return”. “That’s a fascinating tale,” enquired the King, “But I’m curious, how did you know what the wise old uncle told Chicken Boy, to get him to leave the coop?”

“Sir”, replied the young man clutching his reward to his chest, “I was Chicken Boy!”