Blessing or misfortune
Once
there lived a wise old man in a village. Although he was poor, the king was
jealous of him because he owned a beautiful white horse. He was offered
extravagant amounts of money for the horse, but the man always refused saying,
“This is not just a horse to me but a person and a friend. Could you sell your
friend? No, absolutely not.”
One
morning he woke up and found his horse gone. As the news spread, the whole
village gathered at his house.
“You
old, foolish man! It was just a matter of time before your horse was stolen.
You could have been rich had you sold it. What a misfortune!”
“We’ll
see,” replied the old man “It’s true that the horse is not in the stable but
how do you know whether it’s a misfortune or not?”
The
villagers laughed at him and said, “Don’t try to fool us, you silly man!”
A
few days later, the horse returned and with it came several wild horses. Again
the villagers came to the man’s house.
“Old
man, you are right. We are sorry for what we said. Now you have more beautiful
horses. You can train them and sell them to earn money. What a blessing!”
The
man replied, “We’ll see, who knows whether it is a blessing or not?”
This
time people kept silent.
A
couple of days later, the man’s only son fell off one of the wild horses while
trying to ride and broke his leg. Upon hearing this, the villagers gathered
again and told the old man, “You were right. Having more horses isn’t a
blessing. Now your only son is injured. What a misfortune!”
Again
the old man replied, “We’ll see.”
One
month later, war broke out and all young people of the village were forced to
join the military.
The
villagers all gathered and cried, “Our sons are gone forever. Your son’s injury
indeed turned out to be a blessing.”
The
old man replied, “Whether it is a blessing or a misfortune, nobody knows. Only
God knows.”
Life
reveals itself to us in fragments. Sometimes when something happens, it’s
better not to jump to conclusions but to let it be and wait.
A
seeming misfortune may be a blessing in disguise and vice versa. There’s always
a higher plan unfolding.
