Why do good things happen to bad people, and why do bad things happen to good people?

A story from the Li Su people who live in the mountains and do not feel as though they belong to any nation, but would probably be found near cambodia. Told to our class by our professor, and told to you by me.

There once was a creator god. He, much like the greek Zeus created this world without chaos, he too bundled up all of the unmentionable things in a box and left them out of our world.

Once the creator god was riding along in the woods, enjoying the view that he had created, when all of a sudden he comes upon the trickster god.  The trickster god is riding a goat. The creator god laughs and asks,

“Trickster god, why are you riding that goat, you look ridiculous.”

“I am riding this goat” says the trickster god “because it is the fastest animal ever ,faster even, than your horse.”

and the creator god looks down at this horse and he is filled with pride, he knows that this horse is the fastest animal in creation because he himself created it.

“That is impossible”

“I can prove it to you in a race, and if I win, you must give me your horse.” replied the trickster god.

The creator god accepts, and they line up to race on the edge of a cliff shaped like a horseshoe. Now, you have to remember what the jungles of cambodia are like, because the fact that they are well below the tree line is important. On this race track, you cannot see more than the road in front of you.

The race starts and the creator god starts off racing hard at a gallop. The trickster god sits there on his goat for a bit, than quickly magics himself to the finish line of the race. The creator god shows up, exhausted, panting, and is shocked to find the trickster god there. You see, the creator god cannot fathom that the trickster god has cheated, that action is outside of his realm of knowledge.

“you are surprised?” says the trickster god “surely you saw me pass you?”

“I guess I missed you” the creator god replies, still confused. but he is not one to back out of a deal, so he humbly hands over his horse. The trickster god gives the creator god the goat as a condolence prize and rides back towards the house of the creator god.

Once he is well out of sight (for the creator god, having to ride a goat is much further behind) he changes himself to look like the creator god. He rides up to the creator gods house (still disguised as him) and goes inside. The creator god’s wife is there and asks him why he is looking so upset.

“It is that annoying trickster god,” says the trickster god disguised as the creator god “he is going around pretending to be me, he is so terrible that I ought to kill him. If you see him, you must kill him. The only way to tell that he is not me is that he will be riding a goat instead of my fine horse.”

The creator god’s wife, not knowing that this is in fact the trickster god, sees the creator god riding up the path on a goat and with a swift throw of an axe kills him dead.

This is why there is chaos, this is why bad things happen to good people, because the trickster god has been running the show the whole time.

*photo of a drawing i did last week.