Renan, the Zen master, lived the simplest life in a small hut at the foot of a mountain. One evening a thief broke into the hut and discovered that there was nothing there to steal. Returning, Renan found the thief at his place.
“You have come a long way to visit me,” he said to the tramp, “and you must not return empty-handed. Please take my clothes as a gift.”
The thief was dumbfounded. He took the clothes and quietly left.
Renan sat naked, admiring the moon.
“Poor guy,” he said thoughtfully. “I would really like to give him this beautiful moon.”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru