One king once decided to give away part of his wealth in the form of alms. At the same time, he really wanted to know what would happen to his gifts. He called a baker whom he trusted and ordered him to bake two loaves of bread, one with a certain amount of precious stones, and the other with only water and flour. Then the baker had to choose two people from his customers - the most virtuous and the most sinful - and give them these loaves.
The next morning two people walked into the bakery. One of them, dressed in a dervish robe, seemed to be a model of virtue, although in fact he was an ordinary hypocrite. The other, who put his money on the counter without a word, looked like a certain person whom the baker had not liked for a long time.
The baker gave the bread with the jewels to the dervish, and the ordinary loaf to another visitor.
Taking his loaf, the false dervish felt that it was heavier than usual. He weighed it in his palm, then crushed it slightly and, feeling for the precious stones, decided that they were lumps of poorly mixed flour. Then he looked at the baker, but seeing his stern face, he realized that it was better not to mess with him, and turned to another customer:
- Let's exchange loaves, it seems to me that you are hungry, and my loaf is bigger than yours.
This man, who humbly accepted everything that fate sent him, willingly gave up his bread and took the dervish’s bread.
The king watched them from the inner room and was very amazed by all this, but still did not understand which of the two was more virtuous.
The buyers, having exchanged loaves of bread, left, and the king decided that the higher will wanted to protect the dervish from worldly wealth. He didn't know how else to interpret what had happened.
But a truly virtuous person who exchanged loaves of bread found treasures and used them for a good deed.
“I did what I was told,” said the baker.
“Fate is not in our power,” answered the king.
“What a smart thing I did!” - the false dervish rejoiced.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru