A MANDOLIN that once lived in a music school in Athens was very proud of his noble descent. “I might be an Athenian, but I come from a noble family of the most talented Italian musical instruments that came here centuries ago”, he used to say to the other musical instruments, never losing a chance to make fun of their own origin from various places in Greece.
He had even come up with a nickname for every musical instrument in the school, based on their place of origin. “Since you’re from Crete, we can call you… Lutakis!”, he used to say to the Cretan lute. “And we can call you miss Lyridou”, to the Pontian lyre. The other musical instruments found his jokes rather coarse, however, thinking he was arrogant.
One summer day however, it so happened that the musical instruments had to go to Cephalonia island to put on a performance. As they would be visiting a place with beautiful, sandy beaches, they even thought of combining it with vacations. So, they gathered to organize and decide where they would stay and which places to visit. “What will we eat there? A musical instrument with such noble origins like me cannot possibly eat whatever he’s given”, the mandolin boasted. As he wouldn’t come around to their point of view, he eventually agreed to come along and bring his own food. Right before departure he showed up with ten big Tupper containers filled with expensive, tasty foods that were deserving of his noble origins. As soon as they got there, and so as to punish him for making fun of them all this time, they coordinated with each other and while he was away for a dive, hid his supplies behind a tree. So, as soon as he got out of the sea, hungry and with a stomach growling, he searched for them. The only place where he did not look was the tree. “I’m so hungry…!”, he exclaimed and kept looking right and left for his Tupperware. After searching for them everywhere, he came to the conclusion he had left his food home. “I’m not really that hungry it seems…”, the mandolin said and sat quietly in his corner. As he was watching the other musical instruments enjoying their lunch, however, he felt so hungry he couldn’t resist. Not really wanting to admit he needed them, however, he excused himself and went for a walk. After a big walk, he found a canteen that was selling mandolato, a traditional nougat-like sweet that can only be found in the Ionian islands. So hungry was the mandolin that he cared little; he bought a piece which he devoured within a second. Still feeling hungry, he then ate a second, a third and a fourth. “I didn’t know it was so delicious…!”, the mandolin said, then bought every piece of the tasty sweet that the canteen offered, which he carried over back to the beach. As soon as he got back, the other musical instruments got curious. “What did you bring for us, Mandolin?”, they asked him. “Mandolato!”, the mandolin answered. Then every musical instrument burst into laughter, as all the surnames in Cephalonia contained the ending -ato. “Looks like you’ve renounced your noble origin and become a Cephalonian!”, they mocked him. Proud of his descent as he was, he became red with shame and started crying. “I’m sorry…”, he told them, admitting his mistake for making fun of their own origin. To make up for it, they uncovered where they had hidden the Tupperware containers he had brought and apologized back for making fun of him....
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