One merchant sent his son to learn the secret of happiness from a sage. The young man walked through the desert for forty days and finally came to a beautiful castle that stood on the top of a mountain. However, instead of the expected meeting with a wise man in the silence of his chambers, our hero found himself in a hall where everything was seething: merchants were coming in and out, in the corner, at a table laden with the most exquisite dishes of this area, people were talking, a little further away a small orchestra was playing wonderful melodies. The sage talked with different people, and the young man had to wait about two hours for his turn. The sage listened carefully to the young man's explanations about the purpose of his visit, but said in response that he did not have time to tell him the secret of happiness, and suggested that he take a walk around the palace and come again in two hours.
“However, I want to ask for one favor,” the sage added, handing the young man a small spoon into which he dropped two drops of oil. — While walking around the palace, keep this spoon in your hand all the time so that the oil does not spill out.
The young man bowed and went to wander through the halls and passages of the palace, keeping his eyes on the spoon. Exactly two hours later he returned to the sage.
“Well,” he asked, “have you seen the Persian carpets that are in my dining room?” Have you seen the wonderful park that took ten years to create? Did you notice the ancient parchments in the library?
The young man embarrassedly admitted that he had not seen anything. His only concern was not to spill the two drops of oil that the sage entrusted to him.
“Well, come back and get acquainted with the wonders of my Universe,” the sage told him. “You can’t trust a person if you don’t know the house in which he lives.”
The young man took a spoon and again went for a walk around the palace, this time paying attention to all the overseas wonders, all the paintings and stained glass windows made by the best masters of the country.
He saw gardens surrounded by mountains and the most delicate flowers, and he admired the delicacy with which each piece of art was placed exactly where it was needed.
Returning to the sage, the young man enthusiastically described everything he saw.
- Where are the two drops of oil that I entrusted to you? - asked the sage. And the young man, looking at the spoon, discovered that all the oil had poured out.
“This is the only advice I can give: the secret of happiness is to look at all the wonders of the world, while never forgetting about two drops of oil in your spoon.”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru