They say that on the day Alexander became ruler of the world, he locked himself in a room and cried. His commanders were worried. What's happened? They had never seen him cry. He was not that kind of person. They were with him in different situations: when life was in great danger, when death was very close, but no one noticed traces of despair and hopelessness on his face. He was an example of courage. What happened to him now, now that he has won, now that the world has been conquered?
They knocked, entered and asked:
- What happened, why are you crying?
He replied:
- Now that I won, I realized that I lost. Now I am in the same place where I was when I started this senseless conquest of the world. This only became clear to me now, because before I was on a journey, I had a goal. Now I have nowhere to move, no one to conquer. I feel a terrible emptiness inside me. I lost.
Alexander died at the age of thirty-three. As he was carried to the burial site, his arms dangled freely at the sides of the stretcher. This was his will: he wanted everyone to see that he was leaving empty-handed.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru