Virtues of Life

A Persian folktale called “Marvarid” (The Pearl) high-lights the virtue of patience that sadhus, bhikshus, hermits and sufis achieved.

A poor god-fearing man and his wife earned their livelihood by spinning cotton into thread and selling it in the market. One day, as the man came home from the market, he met a friend who was in dire need. The good man gave his day’s earning to his friend and went home empty-handed. His wife said that since there was no food in the house and no cotton either for the next day, he could take the only things they had, an earthen pot and a broken dish, to sell. The man took these to the market but found no buyers. He turned sadly to go when he saw a fisherman passing by with a fish to sell. The fisherman said, “Since no one is buying my fish or your articles, why don’t we exchange our goods?”

The grateful man took the fish home and his wife cut it up to cook. To her surprise she found a pearl inside. But her husband said “If there is a hole in this pearl, then it belongs to someone else and we will look for the owner, but if there is no hole, then God had sent it for us.” Not finding a hole, he took it to a jeweller. It turned out to be a rare pearl and the good man sold it for enough money to live comfortably thereafter.

As he went home, he passed a starving beggar. When the beggar asked him for money, he was moved and said, “Brother, I was also in your state some time ago, but now you can have half my money.”

As he gave the money to the beggar, an angel appeared in his place who said, “God was testing your patience and generosity, take the money and live in peace.”