It is often said that when Che Guevara was finally captured in his Bolivian hideout—betrayed by a shepherd who revealed his position—one of the astonished soldiers asked the shepherd:
“How could you betray a man who spent his life defending people like you and fighting for your rights?”
The shepherd, unmoved, calmly replied:
“His battles frightened my sheep.”
This story reflects a tragic reality in history: many who sacrifice for the oppressed are ultimately abandoned by those they defend.
A similar episode took place centuries earlier in Egypt, during the French invasion led by Napoleon Bonaparte. The Egyptian commander Mohamed Karim (1751–1799), who valiantly resisted the French in Alexandria, was captured after a long struggle.
The French court sentenced him to death, but Napoleon intervened, saying:
“I regret executing a man who defended his homeland with such courage. I do not wish history to remember me as a killer of heroes. I will pardon you—if you can pay 10,000 gold coins as compensation for my army’s losses.”
Karim laughed and replied:
“I have no such wealth, but the merchants of Alexandria owe me more than 100,000 gold coins.”
Napoleon granted him time to collect the sum. Karim, still in chains and surrounded by soldiers, was taken to the marketplace. There, he pleaded with the wealthy traders—men for whom he had sacrificed everything—to contribute to his ransom.
Not one merchant stepped forward. Instead, they coldly accused him of being responsible for the city’s devastation and their financial troubles.
Heartbroken, Karim was led back to Napoleon. The French commander then declared:
“I will not kill you because you fought against me, but because you sacrificed yourself for a cowardly people who love trade more than freedom.”
Years later, the reformist scholar Mohamed Rashid Rida (1865–1935) reflected on such tragedies, writing:
“He who stands up for an ignorant people is like one who sets his own body on fire to light the way for the blind.”
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