Bad Friends Corrupt Good Morals

   A Short Story by Mohamed Mohamoud Ahmed

Once upon a time, there was a boy whose name was Ghuled. He was living with his parents. His parents were very interested in empowering their boy educationally to become the first among others.

Ghuled was a student who refused the advice of his parents. He started to follow bad students that he should not even be engaged with and they became close friends.

‘Wasting time is not good,’ his father advised him.

‘But Ahmed replied that time was not important.

Despite this, Ghuled's parents promised to send him outside the country for his university education after he must have finished his secondary education. Unfortunately, he did not accept the idea of his parents and turned a deaf ear to their words.

He started to smoke cigarettes and chew khat all day till he exhausted his time without anything being achieved. And this was how Ghuled burned his days which became months and then years without any achievement.

Many years later, Ghuled met a man who was one of his classmates in secondary school His name was Adam. Adam was looking very smart and he was also laughing at Ghuled after they saw each other. He asked Ghuled some questions.

‘What do you do or where do you work? And, have you graduated from the university?’

With tears in Ghuled eyes, he answered: ‘No, I left school when I was young and I only spend some time in the market doing all sort of manual labour’.

Ahmed, Ghuled ex-classmate, laughed some more and told Ghuled that he finished his university in London and now the regional director of the UN.

Ghuled was full of regret. He remembered how his parents had pleaded with him. He said, ‘If only I had taken the idea or advice of my parents and not followed bad friends, I wouldn't be poor and unhappy today’.

The End.

Meet the Writer

Mohamed Mohamoud Ahmed has just completed a Functional English Language Course at Qalam Educational and Technical Center, Hargeisa. He is an Arabic language and mathematics teacher and he resides in Somaliland. He loves reading the Quran and praying in the mosque.