Alchemist

He also allowed the boy to follow his legend and realize his dream. Summary - The story begins when the shepherd boy stopped for the night in a church with a sycamore tree growing out of the middle. He told of the easy going life of the shepherd and how his parents had wanted to become a priest. He had attended all of the schooling, but had decided against it at the last minute. He had wanted to see the world and he felt that the best way to do this was to go and become a shepherd. He said that the life of a shepherd is easy and carefree and he felt like that this was the way that he wanted to spend his life. He was anticipating seeing the daughter of a man who would buy the wool from his sheep when he arrived in the town that he would come to in another couple of days. He thought that he might actually settle down and get married to this girl if she would like to. He had been having a recurring dream about him at the pyramids in Egypt. There he would be able to find all of the treasure in the world and to realize what would come to be called his personal legend. So, the next town that he went to he went to a fortuneteller and asked her if she could help him out of his dilemma. She was unclear about what to do, but she made him promise to give him a percentage of his treasure if he ever found it. When he left the fortuneteller, he went and sat in the park where he would have been content to read his new book. He was not in a good mood for talking with others when the old king approached him and tried to strike up a conversation with him. He told the boy that everyone has a personal legend that he has to fulfill at some time in his life. He tells him that his could be found at the pyramids because of the dreams that he has been having lately. He tells him that he will help him if he will give him ten percent of his herd, because you should never promise anything that you don't have yet.