Long
age, people lived happily under the rule of a king. The people of the kingdom
were very happy as they led a very prosperous life with an abundance of wealth and
no misfortunes.
Once,
the king decided to go visiting places of historical importance and pilgrim
centres at distant places. He decided to travel by foot to interact with his
people. People of distant places were very happy to have a conversation with their
king. They were proud that their king had a kind heart.
After
several weeks of travel, the king returned to the palace. He was quite happy
that he had visited many pilgrim centres and witnessed his people leading a
prosperous life. However, he had one regret.
He
had intolerable pain in his feet as it was his first trip by foot covering a
long distance. He complained to his ministers that the roads weren’t
comfortable and that they were very stony. He could not tolerate the pain. He
said that he was very much worried about the people who had to walk along those
roads as it would be painful for them too!
Considering
all this, he ordered his servants to cover the roads in the whole country with
leather so that the people of his kingdom can walk comfortably.
The
king’s ministers were stunned to hear his order as it would mean that thousands
of cows would have to be slaughtered in order to get sufficient quantity of
leather. And it would cost a huge amount of money also.
Finally,
a wise man from the ministry came to the king and said that he had another
idea.
The
minister said, “Instead of covering the roads with leather, why don’t you just
have a piece of leather cut in
appropriate shape to cover your feet.”
The
king was very much surprised by his suggestion and applauded the wisdom of the
minister. He ordered a pair of leather shoes for himself and requested all his
countrymen also to wear shoes.
Moral:
Instead of trying to change the world, we should try to change ourselves.
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