Religious Gathekas #31-32 The God Ideal
There is a story of a king who was travelling and hunting in the woods, and the king was hungry and stopped at the house of a peasant who treated him very kindly. When the king was leaving this peasant, he was so touched with his kindness that without telling him he was a king he said to him, "Take this ring, and if ever you are in trouble, come to me in the city and I will see what I can do for you." After a time there was a famine and the peasant was in great trouble; his wife and child were dying, and he set out to see this man.
Of course, when he showed the ring he was brought to the king. When he entered the room he saw the king busy in prayer, and when the king came near to him he said, "What were you doing?" "Praying for peace and love and happiness among my subjects." "So there is a greater one than you, to whom you must go for what you seek? Then I will go to Him who is greater and on whom even your destiny depends." He would accept no help, and at last the king had to send what was needed quietly to his home, first saying that no one must tell him that it came from the king.
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