A man, his horse and his dog were traveling down a road. When they were passing by a gigantic tree, a bolt of lightning struck and they all fell dead on the spot.
But the man did not realize that he had already left this world, so he went on walking with his two animals; sometimes the dead take time to understand their new condition…
The journey was very long, uphill, the sun was strong and they were covered in sweat and very thirsty. They were desperately in need of water. At a bend in the road they spotted a magnificent gateway, all in marble, which led to a square paved with blocks of gold and with a fountain in the center that spouted forth crystalline water.
The traveler went up to the man guarding the gate.
“Good morning.”
“Good morning,” answered the man.
“What is this beautiful place?”
“This is heaven.”
“How good to have reached heaven, we’re ever so thirsty.”
“You can come in and drink all you want.”
And the guard pointed to the fountain.
“My horse and my dog are thirsty too.”
“So sorry, but animals aren’t allowed in here.”
The man was very disappointed because his thirst was great, but he could not drink alone; he thanked the man and went on his way. After traveling a lot, they arrived exhausted at a farm whose entrance was marked with an old doorway that opened onto a tree-lined dirt road.
A man was lying down in the shadow of one of the trees, his head covered with a hat, perhaps asleep.
“Good morning,” said the traveler.
The man nodded his head.
“We are very thirsty – me, my horse and my dog.”
“There is a spring over in those stones,” said the man, pointing to the spot. “Drink as much as you like.”
The man, the horse and the dog went to the spring and quenched their thirst. Then the traveler went back to thank the man.
“By the way, what’s this place called?”
“Heaven.”
“Heaven? But the guard at the marble gate back there said that was heaven!”
“That’s not heaven, that’s hell.”
The traveler was puzzled.
“You’ve got to stop this! All this false information must cause enormous confusion!”
The man smiled:
“Not at all. As a matter of fact they do us a great favor. Because over there stay all those who are even capable of abandoning their best friends…”

Heaven pleads man to engage himself in good deeds n to b a part of its eternal pleasure..
Hell never pleads instead it knows itself that some space more should be provided to occupy all the sinners..
Humanity and Compassionation needed..
Lets b the advocates of Good..
Rijoola
nice story!!! thanks
Shows nicely how hell masquerades as Heaven relying on deceit for its facade. Both Heaven and Hell are hard places to be, but Heaven is blessed by love and in love are all things made possible. Where Hell is a place of non-love.
GREATE!
that’s nice short story;so it shouldn’t let your best freinds in the better and worst.
being selfish is ‘gate’ to hell and being ’sharing’ gate to heaven !
Alexandra, weren’t they all dead, dead and thirsty, imagine what is the use of being dead if u can still be thirsty, as they were all dead so who was saved ?
hell is ‘advertised’ has ornate gate, while heaven is made slightly repelling, only if one can love it eoufgh to enter it despite it’s apparent shortcommings find that teh chortcommings were only kind of negative advertisement, to keep away the merely curious !
can we extrapolate the story to indicate that most things which are advertised are pathways to hell !! ooppps that will include all established religions, no !!
love
aditya
Yes, heaven has to include the sweet souls of animals… those who doubt they have a soul look into their eyes…..Anyone who inhabits your heart has to be there too.!!
Simple but very deep
This is so nice…thank you..i’ll share it to my friends..=)
Brillant! En fait, what is heaven?
Awesome
..
indeed, human sometimes miss to interpret *the real* heaven.
nice story ^_^
very interesting story because the heven key is to be useful for all the alive being mankind, animals, plants n all environment around us
Very nice story, thank you
very touching… i didn’t know it was gonna end so sweet…
just a thought, in a lot of stories that i’ve heard, heaven always has a good disguise of being the unpleasant choice than hell… but in the end, heaven turns up to be the festive place for the good…=)
Acting with integrity always yields the best results.
This story came to me at just the right moment. I suppose I was expecting it.
I love these stories. I don’t know how I missed finding these – I read your other blog and receive your messages on FB. Never mind. Thank you! JL
Oh,I am so touched.Is one of the best stories.Infact,I love animals and I have a dog.I was wondering how the story goes,and than happy you saved all.In addition,now I am trying to help a friend,but my condition does not aloud me to do as much as I can.I thought I leave without saying a word,but now I know is better staying near my friend ,no matter what.
Noblesse de coeur / foi / Amour pour tous / Altruisme / Humilité