Once upon a time there lived a king, and he had plenty of everything, like all kings. But suddenly troubles began to befall him and his kingdom. A terrible drought occurred, the neighboring king took advantage of this, attacked the capital and besieged it. An epidemic began in which the entire family and half of the inhabitants of the capital of the unfortunate king died. When the army weakened, the enemy stormed the city and destroyed the survivors. The king managed to escape. He went to his friend the ally king, with whom he grew up together, but on the way he was captured by a gang of robbers and sold into slavery. He spent three long and painful years on distant plantations and finally fled. When he reached the capital of his friend, he was simply not allowed into the palace, since the guards did not believe that he was a king after seeing his rags. Then he had to get a job in the city, and he worked for a whole year to earn decent clothes.
Only then did he appear before his friend. He responded to the guest’s story with compassion and understanding and, after thinking, said: “I will help you.” Give him a flock of sheep of 100 heads, let him graze,” he ordered.
Killed by the “friendly” attitude of the unfortunate king, still not believing that the old friendship was forgotten, he trudged off to graze the sheep, because he had no other choice. While he was tending sheep, cursing his fate, wolves attacked his flock and destroyed all the sheep. Arriving with his head down at the palace, he told about what had happened. A friend ordered: - Well, okay, give him 50 sheep!
But this herd also died, rushing into the abyss after the leader. - Give him 25 sheep! - was the next sentence.
This time nothing happened, all the sheep grazed and bred peacefully, and after some time he had a flock of 1000 sheep. The king came to the palace and said: - Look, I have 1000 sheep and in a year there will be twice as many!
Then his friend, delighted by this news, hugged him and loudly ordered: “Take his sheep!”
Instead of sheep, he gave him the neighboring state. But our king, who had long been disillusioned with friendly relations, asked: “Why didn’t you immediately give me the kingdom at the very beginning!?” “No stone would be left unturned from him,” answered his wise friend. “I just waited for your dark streak in life to end and the next stage to come.” Now it has arrived. The sheep were only an indicator of your destiny.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru