Temptation: An Interesting Take

I recently finished reading "The Devil and Miss Prym" by Paulo Coelho. I had read “The Alchemist” by him and I liked his writing style. I saw this new book and it caught my eye because on the cover it said “A Novel of Temptation”. It turns out that it is a really interesting take on temptation.

If you have plans to read this book, stop reading this post here.

Basically, it is about a stranger that comes to a small town, where everyone knows everyone, with 11 bars of gold and a question. Are people good or evil? He finds a young woman and he offers her an interesting proposition. He tells her that he wants to see if he can make someone break the commandment Thou Shall Not Kill. He tells her that he wants her to tell the villagers his proposition. He will give the villagers 7 days to kill someone, it could be anyone, someone old or sick, anyone they choose. If they decide to kill someone he will give the villagers the bars of gold. Then he will know that people are in essence evil. However if no one dies in the 7days, he leaves town with his 11 bars of gold and he knows people are in essence good.

There are other twists and turns along the way, but it all boils down to whether or not the villagers will “sacrifice” one of their own for the good of the rest  of the village. It is a real interesting question. What would you do in that situation? Would you be willing to end someone’s life for the betterment of the whole village? 11 bars of gold could bring you immense riches, would you try to take your chances and kill the stranger instead of one of your own? Or would you not be able to go through with it and lose a tremendous opportunity to save your village? Or would you go through with it because you are afraid you would be the one selected to be killed if you went against the majority?

Anyway, I just thought it was an interesting way to look at temptation, because most stories of temptation are about forbidden love or adultery, not murder. So if you are looking for something to read, this is worth picking up.