The Boasting Traveler

In a bustling marketplace in the ancient city of Athens, where merchants from all corners of the known world came to trade their goods and share news from distant lands, there lived a man named Braggart who had earned quite a reputation for his extraordinary tales of adventure and athletic prowess.

Braggart was indeed a well-traveled man who had visited many cities and countries during his years as a merchant’s assistant. However, over time, his stories of these journeys had grown increasingly elaborate and impressive, often bearing little resemblance to the actual events that had inspired them.

Every day, Braggart would position himself in the central square of the marketplace, where crowds of people gathered to hear news from other regions. He had become something of a local entertainment, regaling audiences with increasingly spectacular tales of his supposed athletic achievements in various distant cities.

“My friends,” Braggart would begin with great dramatic flair, “you simply cannot imagine the incredible feats I have accomplished during my travels! Why, just last year in Rhodes, I performed the most amazing athletic feat that anyone had ever witnessed!”

The merchants and citizens who gathered around would listen with a mixture of amusement and skepticism as Braggart launched into his latest tale.

“The people of Rhodes,” he continued enthusiastically, “held their annual athletic competitions, and they invited travelers to participate. Well, naturally, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to demonstrate my remarkable abilities!”

Braggart would pause dramatically, ensuring he had everyone’s full attention before continuing with his story.

“In the long jump competition,” he declared with supreme confidence, “I achieved a leap so incredible, so impossibly far, that the judges had to measure it three times before they could believe their own eyes! I jumped a distance that no human being had ever jumped before or since!”

“How far exactly?” asked a skeptical blacksmith named Demos, who had heard many of Braggart’s stories over the years.

“Thirty feet!” Braggart announced triumphantly. “Thirty full feet! The previous record in Rhodes was only twenty feet, but I sailed through the air like I had wings, landing so far beyond the previous mark that the crowd was speechless with amazement!”

The audience murmured among themselves, as thirty feet was indeed an impossible distance for any human to jump, even the most gifted athletes of their time.

“Furthermore,” Braggart continued, emboldened by the attention, “the people of Rhodes were so impressed by my performance that they erected a statue in my honor! They declared me the greatest athlete who had ever visited their city, and they begged me to stay and train their young men in the art of athletics!”

An elderly merchant named Sophia, who had actually traveled to Rhodes recently, raised an eyebrow at this claim. “A statue, you say? I was in Rhodes just two months ago, and I don’t recall seeing any statue of a visiting athlete.”

Braggart waved dismissively. “Oh, it was erected in a very exclusive part of the city, reserved only for the most honored guests. Ordinary visitors wouldn’t have access to that area.”

As the days passed, Braggart’s stories became even more elaborate. He claimed to have won wrestling matches against professional athletes, to have run faster than horses, and to have performed feats of strength that surpassed those of legendary heroes.

“In Sparta,” he announced during one of his daily performances, “I was challenged to a race by their finest runner, a man who had never been defeated in competition. Not only did I win the race, but I finished so far ahead of him that I had time to sit down and enjoy a meal before he crossed the finish line!”

“And in Corinth,” he continued another day, “I lifted a stone that was so heavy that ten men together could barely move it. The Corinthians were so amazed that they offered to make me their king, but I humbly declined because I preferred the freedom of travel!”

Most of the marketplace regulars had grown accustomed to Braggart’s tales and took them as harmless entertainment. However, some people were becoming annoyed by his constant boasting and obvious exaggerations.

One day, a group of athletes who were visiting Athens for their own competitions happened to hear one of Braggart’s performances. These men were genuine champions who had actually achieved remarkable feats in various cities, and they were not amused by Braggart’s obvious falsehoods.

The leader of this group was a renowned athlete named Aristos, who had won competitions throughout Greece and was known for his honesty and integrity as well as his physical abilities.

“Excuse me, friend,” Aristos interrupted politely as Braggart was describing his supposed victory in a discus throwing competition. “Did I understand you correctly? You claim to have thrown the discus farther than anyone in the history of Olympic competition?”

Braggart puffed up with pride, not realizing that he was speaking to someone who actually knew about athletic competitions. “Indeed I did! It was a throw so magnificent that the judges declared it a new record that would probably never be equaled!”

Aristos nodded thoughtfully. “That’s quite impressive. And you say this happened in Rhodes?”

“Yes, Rhodes! They still talk about my incredible performance there!”

“Interesting,” Aristos said with a slight smile. “As it happens, several of my friends here are from Rhodes, and they were present at every athletic competition held there in recent years. Perhaps they can verify your story.”

Braggart suddenly looked less confident, but he tried to maintain his bravado. “Well, it was a special competition, not open to the general public. Very exclusive.”

“I see,” Aristos replied. “Well, that would explain why no one heard about it. But tell me, if you’re truly such an exceptional athlete, perhaps you’d be willing to demonstrate some of your abilities here and now?”

The crowd perked up with interest at this suggestion. Finally, someone was challenging Braggart to prove his claims rather than just listening to his stories.

“Demonstrate?” Braggart asked nervously. “Well, I would love to, but you see, I’m not properly prepared for athletic competition at the moment. I would need the right equipment, the proper training ground…”

“Oh, that’s no problem,” Aristos said graciously. “There’s an excellent gymnasium right here in Athens, and I’m sure we could arrange for any equipment you might need. If you can truly jump thirty feet, as you claim you did in Rhodes, even a modest demonstration of twenty feet would be impressive enough to convince us.”

Braggart’s face began to pale as he realized that his boasting was leading him into an impossible situation. “Well, you see, I’m not really dressed for athletic competition today. And I haven’t had proper preparation…”

“Surely someone of your extraordinary abilities wouldn’t need much preparation for a simple demonstration,” suggested Demos the blacksmith with a knowing smile. “After all, you claim to have achieved these feats spontaneously during your travels.”

More and more people in the marketplace began to gather around, sensing that something interesting was about to happen. Word spread quickly that the famous boaster was finally being challenged to prove his claims.

“Come now,” Aristos said encouragingly. “We’re not asking you to break any records. Just show us a sample of these remarkable abilities you’ve been describing. Even half the distance you claim to have achieved would be quite impressive.”

Braggart looked around at the expectant faces of the crowd and realized that he had talked himself into a corner from which there was no graceful escape. The truth was that he was no more athletic than any ordinary person, and his tales of sporting prowess were pure fantasy.

“Actually,” Braggart said weakly, “I think I may have injured my leg during my last journey. Perhaps it would be better to postpone any demonstration until I’ve had time to recover properly.”

The crowd began to murmur with disappointment and growing skepticism. It was becoming obvious to everyone that Braggart was making excuses to avoid having to back up his boastful claims.

Aristos nodded understandingly. “Of course, we wouldn’t want you to risk further injury. But you know, there’s an old saying that might be relevant here: ‘Here is Rhodes, here is your leap.’ In other words, if you truly achieved these feats elsewhere, you should be able to achieve them here as well.”

“The ground conditions are different here,” Braggart protested desperately. “The soil composition in Rhodes was much more suitable for jumping…”

But the crowd was no longer interested in hearing more excuses. People began to drift away, shaking their heads at Braggart’s obvious reluctance to demonstrate any of the abilities he had been claiming to possess.

From that day forward, whenever Braggart tried to tell one of his elaborate tales of athletic achievement, someone in the crowd would call out, “Here is Rhodes, here is your leap!” and he would be forced to admit that he couldn’t actually prove any of his claims.

Eventually, Braggart learned to tell more modest and truthful stories about his travels, focusing on the interesting places he had seen and the people he had met rather than fabricating impossible tales of personal achievement.

The phrase “Here is Rhodes, here is your leap” became a popular saying in the marketplace, used whenever someone was challenged to prove their boastful claims with actual performance.

Moral: Boasting without the ability to prove your claims will eventually be exposed and lead to embarrassment. Actions speak louder than words, and those who make extraordinary claims should be prepared to provide extraordinary proof. True achievement speaks for itself and doesn’t require constant self-promotion.