A THIEF entered
the palace of a king in the dead
of night
and overheard the king saying to the
queen,
"I shall give my daughter in marriage to one
of those
sadhus {holy men) who are dwelling on
the bank
of the river," The thief thought within
himself:
"Well, here is good luck for me. I will go
and sit
among the sadhus tomorrow in the disguise
of a
sadhu, and perchance I may succeed in getting
the king's
daughter."
The next
day he did so. When the king's officers
came
soliciting the sadhus to marry the king's
daughter,
none of them consented to it. At last
they came
to the thief in the guise of a sadhu, and
made the
same proposal to him. The thief kept
quiet. The
officers went back and told the king that
there was
a young sadhu who might be influenced
to marry
the princess and that there was no other
who would
consent. The king then came to the
sadhu in
person and earnestly entreated him to
honour him
by accepting the hand of his daughter.
But the
heart of the thief was changed at the king's
visit. He
thought within himself: "I have only
assumed
the garb of a sadhu, and behold! the king
comes to
me and is all entreaties. Who can say
what
better things may not be in store for me if I
become a
real sadhu!" These thoughts so strongly
affected
him that, instead of marrying under false
pretences,
he began to mend his ways from that
very day
and exerted himself to become a true
sadhu. He
did not marry at all, and ultimately
became one
of the most pious ascetics of his day.
The
counterfeiting of a good thing sometimes
leads
to unexpected good results.
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