The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho Read Free Book Online Page A

words, the boy thought. I’ve already had that experience with my sheep, and now it’s happening with people.
    He was learning a lot of new things. Some of them were things that he had already experienced, and weren’t really new, but that he had never perceived before. And he hadn’t perceived them because he had become accustomed to them. He realized: If I can learn to understand this language without words, I can learn to understand the world.
    Relaxed and unhurried, he resolved that he would walk through the narrow streets of Tangier. Only inthat way would he be able to read the omens. He knew it would require a lot of patience, but shepherds know all about patience. Once again he saw that, in that strange land, he was applying the same lessons he had learned with his sheep.
    â€œAll things are one,” the old man had said.

    The crystal merchant awoke with the day, and felt the same anxiety that he felt every morning. He had been in the same place for thirty years: a shop at the top of a hilly street where few customers passed. Now it was too late to change anything—the only thing he had ever learned to do was to buy and sell crystal glassware. There had been a time when many people knew of his shop: Arab merchants, French and English geologists, German soldiers who were always well-heeled. In those days it had been wonderful to be selling crystal, and he had thought how he would become rich, and have beautiful women at his side as he grew older.
    But, as time passed, Tangier had changed. The nearby city of Ceuta had grown faster than Tangier, and business had fallen off. Neighbors moved away, and there remained only a few small shops on the hill. And no one was going to climb the hill just to browse through a few small shops.
    But the crystal merchant had no choice. He had lived thirty years of his life buying and selling crystal pieces, and now it was too late to do anything else.
    He spent the entire morning observing the infrequent comings and goings in the street. He had done this for years, and knew the schedule of everyone who passed. But, just before lunchtime, a boy stopped in front of the shop. He was dressed normally, but the practiced eyes of the crystal merchant could see that the boy had no money to spend. Nevertheless, the merchant decided to delay his lunch for a few minutes until the boy moved on.

    A card hanging in the doorway announced that several languages were spoken in the shop. The boy saw a man appear behind the counter.
    â€œI can clean up those glasses in the window, if you want,” said the boy. “The way they look now, nobody is going to want to buy them.”
    The man looked at him without responding.
    â€œIn exchange, you could give me something to eat.”
    The man still said nothing, and the boy sensed that he was going to have to make a decision. In his pouch, he had his jacket—he certainly wasn’t going to need it in the desert. Taking the jacket out, he began to clean the glasses. In half an hour, he had cleaned all the glasses in the window, and, as he was doing so, two customers had entered the shop and bought some crystal.
    When he had completed the cleaning, he asked the man for something to eat. “Let’s go and have some lunch,” said the crystal merchant.

    He put a sign on the door, and they went to a small café nearby. As they sat down at the only table in the place, the crystal merchant laughed.
    â€œYou didn’t have to do any cleaning,” he said. “The Koran requires me to feed a hungry person.”
    â€œWell then, why did you let me do it?” the boy asked.
    â€œBecause the crystal was dirty. And both you and I needed to cleanse our minds of negative thoughts.”
    When they had eaten, the merchant turned to the boy and said, “I’d like you to work in my shop. Two customers came in today while you were working, and that’s a good omen.”
    People talk a lot about omens,