Otrupon Birete

Otrupon Irete had at that time a farm planted with okra, and Orunmila warned him that he had to give a goat to Elegba if he wanted everything to go well for him. He did not do it: he was one of those who put off the works for the saints.

His house had the shape of an umbrella and stood on a single post, planted in the center; so that it would not come down, someone had to keep holding that post.

Since the goat never came, Elegba, hungry, showed up to ask him for food. He answered that he had nothing to give him; Elegba asked him again, and in the end he offered him okra. Elegba took the offer, and it was settled that he would hold the post so the house would not fall down on him.

Elegba stayed there, with the post in his hands, while Otrupon Irete went out for the okra. The okra at the edge of the house was the best, but it hurt him to hand over the good one, so he moved along the edge, now outside the house, looking for the smaller fruits.

The delay wore out Elegba's patience: he let go of the post and the house came down.

Note: the okra for the ebbó is not taken with your own hand; the one you use is the one they hand you.

To a man who every morning begged Olofin for a flower and a butterfly, Orunmila did divination and marked the remedy: to make up for his bad deeds by doing all the good he could, and to arm himself with patience so as to treat every being with love; when his time came, the dream would come true. Olofin wanted to test that man's faith and sent him a cactus and a caterpillar. His first reaction was sadness, but he set about watering the cactus and feeding the caterpillar, until the day the cactus opened a lovely flower and the caterpillar became a butterfly. What you ask for does not always come to you in the shape you expect: Olofin gives you the cactus and the caterpillar, and only patience and the good you do turn them, in their own time, into the flower and the butterfly you dreamed of.

Orunmila did divination for a young man who was about to receive an inheritance, and the advice was to hold back, so that he would not end up in misery; the boy listened and sacrificed. Some time later, his father spoke to him like this: "my son, I am old now, and when I am gone you will take charge of everything that is mine, but sadly I know what your future will be: you are going to leave the farm in the hands of the workers and you are going to spend all the money with your friends, you will sell every asset to spend the money, and when you have nothing left, your friends will move away from you, and only then will you bitterly regret not having listened to me; that is why I built this gallows, it is for you! I only want you to promise me that, if what I said happens, you will hang yourself on it." The father's prediction came true point by point, and then the young man spoke: "I never followed my father's words, I could not make him happy while he was alive, but at least this time I am going to keep the promise I made him, I have nothing left to lose but my life." He climbed the steps, fitted the rope around his neck and let himself drop from up there, until he felt the rope tighten on his throat. But the arm of that gallows was hollow and it broke with no resistance: the boy landed on the floor, and on top of him rained bills, emeralds, pearls, rubies, sapphires and many diamonds, because the hollow gallows held a treasure of precious stones. Mixed in with the riches a note appeared, and the young heir read: "this is your second chance, I love you very much! with love, your old father." The father who loves warns his son and guards him even from his own ruin: the one who does not listen to advice while there is life reaches the bottom, but finds in the very gallows of his despair the hidden fortune and the second chance that love left ready for him.