Ancient Wisdom

A king who was also an astrologer read in his stars that on a certain day and at a particular hour a calamity would overtake him. He therefore built a house of solid rock and posted numerous guardians outside. One day, when he was within, he realised that he could still see daylight. He found an opening which he filled up, to prevent misfortune entering. In blocking this door he made himself a prisoner with his own hands. And because of this the king died.

One night a thief, trying to climb through the window of a house which he intended to rob, fell because the window-frame broke, hit the ground and broke his leg. He went to court to sue the owner of the house. This man said: "Sue the carpenter who put the window in." The carpenter said: "The builder did not make the window-aperture properly.' When the builder was called, he said: My fault was caused by a beautiful woman who was passing while I was working at the window." The woman was found, and she said: "I was wearing a beautiful gown at the time. Normally, nobody looks at me. It is the fault of the gown, which was cunningly dyed in variegated stripes." 'Now we have the culprit culprit,' said the judge, 'call the man who did the dying and he shall be held responsible for the harm done to the leg of the thief.' When they found the dyer, he turned out to be the husband of the woman. It so happened that this was -the thief himself.'

Once upon a time there was a dervish. As he was sitting in contemplation, he noticed that there was a sort of devil near him. The dervish said: 'Why are you sitting there, making no mischief?" The demon raised his head wearily. 'Since the theoreticians and would-be-teachers of the Path have appeared in such numbers, there is nothing left for me to do.'

A horse once met a frog in a pond. The horse said to the frog: "Can you take this message to a snake for me, and I shall give you pay. You can have all the flies which surround me." The frog answered: "I like the pay,  but I cannot say that I can complete the task."