In one state there lived a young king. He was very proud and domineering. When he passed through his domain, the people fell on their faces and shouted:
- Vivat, Emperor!
And the treasurer walked behind and threw gold coins to these bent figures. People were ready to gnaw each other's throats for these coins from the imperial treasury, rummaging in the dirt in search of them. Those who did not submit and did not bow their heads before his lordship were cut off by the executioner walking behind them.
And then, one day, while walking in this way, he noticed one monk who did not bow his head and, moreover, walked towards him. The executioner, seeing this, hastened to get ahead of the emperor in order to cut off the rebellious man's head. Since more than one head has already flown off the shoulders at the whim of the freethinking emperor. And at that moment, when he had already swung to behead the rebellious man, he heard the loud voice of his master:
- Stop!
The young king rushed to this wandering dervish, fell to his knees and kissed his greasy robe.
The people were outraged by this and began to shout in displeasure:
- Vivat, Emperor! - in the hope of being showered with gold coins. But the emperor recognized this dervish as his father, who abdicated the throne in his favor and set off to seek the truth.
- Father, how glad I am that you are back!
- No, I haven't returned. I have been to that end of the earth and now I am going to the other edge. And my road lies through your domain...
- But these are your domains too! Father, it pains me to see you in these pitiful clothes. Treasurer, give him gold, no matter how much he asks for!!!
- No, son. Just feed me or give me a few coins so I can buy food for myself. - and handed him his wooden bowl. The emperor ordered the cup to be filled. But when the treasurer began to fill it, it turned out to be empty. Then the emperor was indignant and ordered a bag of gold to be poured there. But everything happened again - the cup was empty.
Then the young king ordered a cart of gold to be brought, he did not care whether the treasury would be empty from this - his father was in front of him.
And so, on the fortieth cart, the son exclaimed:
- Father, I don’t understand, we poured 40 carts of gold into it, but it’s still empty!
- Son, I’m glad that you already thought about this question on the 40th cart. You realized this too early. I gave up everything for this, threw my kingdom, health, youth, in general, everything I had into her, but as you can see, she is still empty!
For this is the cup of our desires and the dulling thirst for filling it will take away from us everything we have……. We can put life into it, but this will not make it fuller!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru