They say that once, a long time ago, in some distant land, a prince went crazy. The king was beside himself with despair: the prince was his only son, the only heir to the kingdom! All the wizards and sorcerers were summoned, the healers were summoned, everything possible was done, but it was all in vain. No one could help the young prince, he remained mad.
On the day he went mad, he threw off all his clothes and, remaining naked, crawled under a large table and declared that he would now live there. He believed that he had become a rooster. In the end, the king had to come to terms with the fact that the prince could not be cured, that he was insane, and nothing could be done about it; after all, all the specialists were defeated.
But one fine day hope was revived again. The sage - a Sufi, a mystic - knocked on the palace doors and suggested: “Come on, I’ll cure your prince.” The king suspected something was wrong, because this man himself looked like a madman, perhaps even crazier than the prince. But the mystic said:
- Only I can cure him. To cure a madman, you need an even greater madman. And all these great figures of yours, these magicians of yours, your luminaries of medicine - they all failed because they do not know the basics of madness. They never took this path.
This seemed logical, and the king thought: “It can’t get any worse, so why not try?” So, the sage was given this opportunity. At the same moment that the king said: “Okay, try it,” this mystic took off his clothes, jumped under the table and crowed a rooster. The prince was surprised and asked:
- Who are you? And what are you crowing about?
“I’m a rooster, and, by the way, I’m more experienced than you,” the old man answered. “You are nothing, you are just a beginner, at best a student.”
“Well, then the fact that you are a rooster is normal, but you look like a person,” said the prince.
The elder remarked:
- Don’t pay attention to appearances, look at my spirit, look into my soul. I'm a cock just like you.
They became friends. They vowed to always live together and always resist this whole world that does not like roosters. Several days passed. One day the elder suddenly began to get dressed. He put on his shirt.
“What are you doing?” the prince was amazed. “Are you crazy: is the rooster trying to put on a human dress?”
The elder objected:
“I only intend to deceive these fools who call themselves human beings.” And remember: whether I’m dressed or not, it doesn’t change anything. My cockiness is always with me, no one can change it. Do you think that dressing as a human will change me?
The prince had to agree. A few days later, the elder convinced the prince to get dressed too, because winter was coming and it was getting cold. Then, another time, he suddenly demanded food from the palace. The prince became alert and exclaimed:
- Unfortunate, what are you doing? Are you going to eat like these human beings, just like them? We are roosters, and we must eat like roosters.
“As for me,” answered the elder, “I don’t care.” You can eat whatever you want and do whatever you like. You can even live as a human being while staying true to your cockiness.
So, one after another, the elder convinced the prince to return to the human world. He became completely normal.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru