A certain king of Persia had a very precious stone in a ring. On one occasion he went out with some of his favorite courtiers to the mosque near Shiraz, called Musalla. The king asked his men to suspend the ring over the dome. He then declared, "This ring will become the property of the person who shoots an arrow right through it!"

More than 400 hundred archers lined up and took a shot at the ring. All of them missed. On the roof top of a nearby building, a young boy was practicing his archery skills.  As luck would have it, by chance one of his arrows sailed through the breeze and landed through the circle of the ring.

The king gave the boy the ring and his men presented him with several gifts. After receiving the gifts, the boy burned his bow and arrows. The king asked him why he did that and he replied, "So that my first glory may remain unchanged."

COUPLET:
The sage whose bright mind mirrors truth,
May sometimes wander wide of it:
While by mistake, the simple youth,
Will, with his shaft, the target hit.

Note: There is a saying in Farsi which says: "Har lafz-i-Sadi, Haftad-o-do maani" which means, "Each word of Sadi has 72 meanings." The story above was narrated by Sadi. I titled and rewrote it in parts.

top