One great Persian king was dying. He was already a hundred years old, but when Death came for him, the king said to her:
- Could you hold back a little? I have not yet truly lived, I was busy with the affairs of the kingdom and was not at all prepared for the need to leave this body, have compassion for me, and if you cannot leave empty-handed, take one of my sons?
Death replied:
“I don’t mind, but first ask your children about it.”
The king had a hundred children. He asked them if anyone would agree to go to the kingdom of Death in his place. The older children immediately refused; only one of them, the youngest and most loving of them all, agreed.
The boy approached his father and said:
- I agree.
Even Death was filled with compassion for him: if a hundred-year-old man has not yet lived, then what can we say about a sixteen-year-old boy?
Death said:
“You don’t know anything, you’re an innocent boy.” On the other hand, all your brothers are silent. Some of them are seventy to seventy-five years old. They are old, their death will soon come for them, it is a matter of a very short time. Why did you volunteer?
The young man replied:
“If my father hasn’t enjoyed life in a hundred years, how can I hope to?” All this is useless! It is enough for me to understand that if my father could not make a living in the world in a hundred years, then I will not make a living even if I live a hundred years. There must be some other way to live. There seems to be no way to make money with life, so I'll try to achieve it with death. So let me go with you.
Death took the boy with him, giving the king the opportunity to live another hundred years. Then Death came again. The king was incredibly surprised:
- Why so fast? I thought that a hundred years is so long, there is no need to worry. I haven't lived yet; I tried, I planned, now everything is ready, and I began to live, and you came again!
This happened ten times: each time one of the sons sacrificed his life, and the father continued to live. When the king was a thousand years old, Death came again and asked him -.
- Well, what do you think now? Should I take one son away again?
The king replied:
- No, now I know that even a thousand years is not enough to make money. It's not a matter of time, it's all in my mind. I get involved in the same vanity again and again, I have become attached to the waste of being and essence. Now I'm ready to leave.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru