The Eloquent Peasant

The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant is an Ancient Egyptian story written circa 1800 B.C.E.

The story begins with a poor peasant named Khun-anup who is tricked off the road by Nemtynakht, the greedy property overseer of a nobleman named Rensi, and forced to lead his donkey through the edge of the nobleman's crop field. The donkey, naturally, ate some of the grain and Nemtynakht confiscated the donkey and beat Khun-anup for his trespass.

Khun-anup searched out Rensi to appeal to him for justice.

Although Khun-anup did not have any witnesses, the nobleman found his speech to be so eloquent and moving that he agreed to hear the case anyway. Rensi then brought the case before the Pharaoh and told him of the peasant's amazing speaking prowess. After hearing of the speech, the Pharoah was also quite impressed. So much so, in fact, that he ordered that the peasant's case should continue to go on and that all of his speeches should be written down for the Pharoah to read.

Khun-anup begged Rensi for justice for nine days, and each of his speeches was more eloquent than the last. Finally, when it seemed like his case was getting nowhere, Khun-anup insulted Rensi and was punished with another beating. After one last speech—the best speech of all—he gave up and left to go home.

Rensi sent for the peasant to come back and, rather than being punished more, the peasant was finally given justice. The Pharoah, Amenemhat, after reading Khun-anup's last speech, was so impressed with his eloquence and righteousness that He ordered the donkey to be given back and that the peasant would be compensated with all the property of Nemtynakht, Rensi's greedy overseer, including his job.

In the spirit of the story, this site is a collaborative art space with the goal of making the world a better place through communication, ideas, and eloquence.