A king once decided to give away a part of his wealth by disinterested charity. At the same time he wanted to watch what happened to it. So he called a baker whom he could trust and told him to bake two loaves of bread. In the first was to be baked a number of jewels, and in the other, nothing but flour and water. These were to be given to the most and least pious people whom the baker could find.
The following morning two men presented themselves at the oven. One was dressed as a dervish and seemed most pious, though he was in reality a mere pretender. The other, who said nothing at all, reminded the baker of a man whom he did not like, by a coincidence of facial resemblance.
The baker gave the bread with the jewels in it to the man in the dervish robe, and the ordinary loaf to the second man. As soon as he got his loaf the false dervish felt it and weighed it in his hand. He felt the jewels, and to him they seemed like lumps in the loaf, unblended flour. He weighed the bread in his hand and the weight of the jewels made it seem to him to be too heavy. He looked at the baker, and realized he was not a man to trifle with.
So he turned to the second man and said: ‘Why not exchange your loaf for mine? You look hungry, and this one is larger.’
The second man, prepared to accept whatever befell, willingly exchanged loaves.
The king, who was watching through a crack in the bakehouse door, was surprised, but did not realize the relative merits of the two men.
The false dervish got the ordinary loaf. The king concluded that Fate had intervened to keep the dervish protected from wealth. The really good man found the jewels and was able to make good use of them. The king could not interpret this happening.
‘I did what I was told to do,’ muttered the baker.
‘You cannot tamper with Fate,’ mused the king.
‘How clever I was!’ proclaimed the false dervish inwardly.
Related Posts :
Processing your request, Please wait....
You might also like
 |
 |
 |
 |
