The Alchemist

The story begins with a shepherd boy named Santiago who lived in Andalusia, Spain. He dreamed of traveling the world since childhood, so he traveled to different places with his sheep. He was thinking about the girl he once met in Tarifa and he was going to Tarifa again to meet her.

He was on his way when night fell and he thought that he should rest for the night and start his journey in the morning. Then he saw a deserted church and thought he would spend the night there. He left his sheep and goats in the church and slept under a sycamore tree.

Now there he saw a dream. In his dream, he saw that a child was holding his hand and leading him towards the pyramids of Egypt and telling him that if you go inside the pyramid you will find a lot of treasure. He woke up before the boy could tell him the exact location of the treasure.

After waking up, Santiago was very confused because it was not the first time he had this dream. He had seen this dream many times before. He thought of asking someone the meaning of this dream before he left for Tarifa. So he went to a woman who was famous for telling people the meaning of their dreams. So when he told the woman about his dream, the woman said, “I will tell you the meaning of this dream, but I have one condition: when you find the treasure, you will give me 1/10 of it.”

Santiago thought for a moment and agreed, after which the woman told him that you must go to Egypt, you will find your treasure there. He was surprised to hear her saying this because anyone could tell him what she was saying.

So he left there and went to the city and was sitting on a bench thinking about something. Then an old man came to him and said to Santiago, “Son, my name is Melchizedek and I am the king of Salem.”

Santiago avoided him because he thought he was lying because he was wearing tattered old and smelly clothes and he didn’t look like a king at all. But then the old man said, “Son, don’t think of me as an ordinary person. I can help you find the treasure”. Santiago was surprised to hear how he knew this.

The old man said, “Remember that this path is not easy for you, you will face many difficulties on this path and the wisdom is to face them instead of avoiding them. And I believe you can do it”.

Now listen to me, sell me all the sheep and goats you have and I will give you money with which you can continue your journey. Santiago was surprised to hear this but the old man convinced him and Santiago also agreed that let’s have an adventure. He sold all the goats he had and with the money he got from selling them, he went on a ship to Africa.

And this is where his real journey began. After traveling for several kilometers, he reached Morocco and was surprised to hear the local dialect because he did not understand the language of the people there.

When Santiago arrived in Morocco, all his money was stolen. At first, he was very worried but then he remembered the lesson from the old man where he had told him to face problems instead of avoiding them.

After which he recovered a little and went to a crystal shop on a nearby hill. Santiago could understand what the merchant was saying. He asks the merchant, “Can I clean your crystal, it will surely increase your crystal sales.” and you will give me some food in return.

The merchant agreed, and while he was cleaning the crystals, many customers actually came to his shop and his shop became so crowded that all his crystals were sold out in no time.

While working, he realized that there was a shortage of food and drink in the market, so he asked the merchant why they did not sell crystals along with the tea. In this way, we will sell crystals and also earn money by selling the tea.

They tried it the very next day and surprisingly it worked great. After this, he started looking for many new ideas for the crystal merchant. Gradually, within a year, his crystal business grew so much that he became a wealthy businessman and Santiago also had a lot of money.

But even here he did not forget his original mission, so he took permission from the merchant and joined the caravan going to Egypt. There he met an Englishman who was going there in search of a famous Al-chemist because he has heard from the people that this alchemist has a formula that can turn copper into gold. Santiago and the Englishman became friends as the two went on their respective missions.

While the caravan was passing through the desert, they heard a rumor that there was going to be a war in the desert, and everyone got scared after hearing this rumor, so the caravan decided to stop at an oasis in the middle of the desert called Al-Fayum until the end of the war.

But no one knew how long this war would last. Santiago was disappointed to hear that because he would have to stop his journey until the war was over, but he did not give up.

When the caravan arrived at the oasis, the Englishman and Santiago started searching for the alchemist. During the search, they met a girl named Fatima who gave them the address of the alchemist.

Now they got the information about the alchemist but Santiago fell in love with Fatima. So, the Englishman immediately left to meet the alchemist. When the Englishman met the alchemist, the alchemist asked him, “You have been looking for me for ten years. Have you ever tried to turn copper into gold?”. The Englishman replied, “No, I never tried,”. So, the alchemist assigned a task to the Englishman to try to convert copper into gold by himself. So the Englishman got busy with this work.

One day Santiago had a vision that someone was going to attack the oasis. So, Santiago immediately went and told the whole story to the chieftain (leader) of the oasis. So the chieftain said, “Okay, we will prepare for the war, but if you were wrong, we will kill you.”

But the next day someone really attacked the oasis. But they had already prepared for war so they easily controlled the attack. Due to this the chieftain of the oasis was very happy with Santiago and he gave him a lot of gold and also made him the councilor of the oasis.

After all this, Santiago was very happy and thought that now he had a lot of gold and a good job, so he could marry Fatima and spend the rest of his life in the oasis. The next day he went to Fatima and told her everything, and she replied, “True love doesn’t make you sacrifice your dreams”. Fatima said, she will wait for him but he should follow his dreams.

Later that evening, Santiago met the alchemist. The alchemist had already heard that Santiago had a vision that saved the oasis. So, the alchemist also advised him to follow his dreams and I will fully support you to achieve this.

Then the alchemist and Santiago left for the pyramids, but on the way, some thugs caught them and stole Santiago’s gold. They were about to kill them but the alchemist said, “Hey, you don’t know what a great magician he is, he will turn himself into the air and blow you all away.”

But hearing this they all laughed and said we will give you three days, if this boy turns himself into the air we will release you, otherwise we will kill you. Hearing this, Santiago was so scared, he said to the alchemist, “We will be killed because of you, how can I turn myself into the air?”

The alchemist said don’t worry you can do it just try to understand the language of the desert and you will see what miracles happen to you. Santiago tried for two days but nothing happened. On the third day, he was very worried. He tried to understand the desert from his heart and suddenly he turns into a wind that blows away all the thieves’ tents. Seeing this, the thieves got scared and left them.

Now Santiago and the alchemist reached a monastery where the alchemist changed some copper into gold and gave it to Santiago and said that from here you will go to Egypt alone and I hope you will fulfill your dream.

Santiago then started his journey and when he reached in front of the pyramid, as he started to dig for the treasure, some thugs came again and took the gold from Santiago and started beating him, which made him unconscious and he bubbling his story that he dreamed that there was a treasure under the pyramids of Egypt that is why I have come here.

Hearing this, they started laughing and one of them said, “You must be crazy, who thinks about their dreams like that. I also dreamed that “There was a sycamore tree in an Empty church in Spain and there’s a lot of treasure down there, but I didn’t follow my dreams because I’m not a fool like him. They thought he was stupid and left him.

But this made Santiago realize where the treasure actually was. He returned to Spain and started digging under the sycamore tree in the church where he had dreamed and finally found the treasure there.

After finding the treasure, Santiago gave one-tenth of the treasure to the old woman as he promised, and happily took the rest of the treasure and went to Fatima in the oasis and married her.

Conclusion

There are three very important lessons in this story.

First Lesson

Treasure is where you are but you need to go out to find it.

This means that your real treasure is where you are now, but you will only find that treasure when you go out and look for it. In the story, the treasure was where Santiago started his journey, but if he hadn’t completed his journey, he would never have found the treasure.

Similarly, when we try to fulfill any of our dreams and the success we get is not a treasure, but the struggle we put in to fulfill that dream, and because of that struggle, the person we become from within, is a real treasure because it allows us to convert our copper values ​​into gold like the alchemist.

Second Lesson

Don’t stop your journey.

During his journey, Santiago faced many problems and there were some problems where he could have stopped and returned to his country, Spain but he did not stop, he faced all the difficulties and kept going.

You learn that you should never stop in your journey to achieve your dream. If something goes wrong, you should take a break like Santiago. He worked at a crystal merchant shop for one to two years, but he did not forget his real mission and as soon as he got the chance, he went back to fulfill his dream.

Third Lesson

Follow your heart.

The whole journey of Santiago teaches us that we should always listen to our hearts, we may face many difficulties in it, but it is certain that if you listen to your heart, you will be successful one day.