Nathan and Mithridanes
Intro
- Storyteller: Filostrato
- Filostrato acknowledges that the Abbot was pretty generous to Ghino by giving up most of his stuff. But he's now got a story where someone was willing to give the most generous gift of all—his life.
Story
- For this tale, we're going all the way to Cathay (that's modern China to us) to hear a story about the wealthy and generous noble man called Nathan.
- Nathan has an exquisite palace built on the route between the East and West just so he can provide hospitality to any travelers that might need assistance on the road.
- Because of his legendary generosity to travelers, Nathan's reputation spread near and far. He's all five stars on Trip Advisor and Yelp.
- A young man called Mithridanes hears about it and wants to be just like Nathan.
- But Mithridanes is no Nathan: he thinks of generosity as a type of competitive sport and is extremely jealous of Nathan's status in the game.
- Then one day, an old beggar woman calls him out when he chides her for taking more alms than she should have. She tells him that Nathan would never have counted how many times she came to him in one day for money or food. He'd just give and give.
- Mithridanes realizes that if he wants to be the MOST generous person on the face of the earth, Nathan will simply have to be eliminated.
- So he sets off toward Nathan's palace with a plan to murder the old man.
- When he approaches the palace, he meets Nathan walking around the grounds, but Mithridanes doesn't recognize him.
- Nathan hides his identity from the young man and tells him that he'll bring Mithridanes to the palace.
- Once Mithridanes is lodged in one of the beautiful rooms of the palace—king bed, flat-screen TV, free Wi-Fi, minibar—the two men begin talking. Mithridanes likes Nathan, so he reveals his intentions.
- Nathan promises to help Mithridanes to kill, well, himself. He tells Mithridanes that Nathan was in the habit of strolling in a particular grove in the evening and the job could easily be done there.
- He even tells his potential murderer the best route for escaping without being seen.
- So Mithridanes heads out to the grove to murder the most generous man in the world.
- He sees the man he assumes to be Nathan.
- But before he gets a chance to strike him dead, Mithridanes recognizes his friend from the castle.
- He realizes what's happened and he's completely ashamed of himself.
- Nathan forgives him immediately, since Mithridanes is not motivated by evil but by the desire for a good name.
- Shmoop thinks that's putting too generous a spin on it, but whatever.
- Nathan even suggests that Mithridanes take his life anyway.
- After all, Nathan's really old and he feels that Mithridanes really is an okay guy. And Nathan's goal in life is never to refuse anything that someone really wants from him.
- Then the two men have a generosity battle: Mithridanes would gladly give some years from his life to extend Nathan's. But no, says Nathan, I'm a giver—I could never accept.
- They end by swapping identities, palaces and reputations. Mithridanes remains at the palace and becomes Nathan, and Nathan goes to Mithridanes' place and assumes his identity.
- And so we're to assume that both men got what they wanted out of life in the end.