One king, traveling around his kingdom with his courtiers, met two poor elders in torn clothes. He immediately stopped, got out of the chariot, bowed to the ground and kissed them.
The courtiers were offended by such an act of the king, which, in their understanding, humiliated the royal dignity. They did not dare to directly show their displeasure. His brother undertook to explain to the king the indecency of his act. The king listened and promised to give him an answer.
This city had such a custom. The day before, a herald with a trumpet was sent to a citizen sentenced to death and began blowing it in front of the windows of his house.
The king in the evening of the same day, when he had an explanation with his brother, sent a trumpeter to the windows of his house. He, of course, was saddened and spent the whole night without sleep.
The next morning he went with his wife to the royal palace. The king received him in his inner chambers and said:
- Unreasonable! You were afraid of the preacher of my will, although you did nothing against me worthy of the death penalty. How could you teach me when I gave preference to the poor - the preachers of God, who preach to me louder than any trumpet about death and the terrible coming of my Master, before whom I sin without number? “So, now exposing your madness,” the king concluded, “you were afraid.
But since the brother showed his displeasure to the king on the advice of the court nobles, the king did not leave them without reproof. He ordered four boxes to be built, two of them to be gilded on the outside, and stinking bones placed inside; others are coated with resin and soot, and precious stones are placed inside.
Having prepared this, the king called the nobles and, pointing out the boxes, asked them:
— Which boxes are better: gilded or coated with resin?
The nobles pointed to the first ones. The king ordered both to be revealed. The matter was explained. Then the king said to the nobles:
- Know that you need to pay attention to the inner and innermost, and not to the external. You were offended when I bowed to poorly dressed beggars. And I saw with the eyes of reason that they were honest and noble in soul.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru