悪から善が出て来る

　ある王様が大臣をつれて狩りに出かけた。王様は無神論者だったが、大臣は神への深い信仰を持っており、人の身に起こったことは何であれ、結局は彼のためによいことである、と信じていた。王様は森の中で雄ジカを見つけたが、弓に矢をつがえようとして鋭い矢の先端で手の指を一本傷つけた。大臣は王様にこの傷は何かおためになることです、と保証した。これをきいて王様は腹を立て、あたりを身まわして一つの井戸を見いだすと、大臣をつれて行ってその中につきおとした。王様は皮肉に、井戸におちたのはおまえの幸せのためであるぞ、と言った。

　王様は今や王宮に帰ろうとした。途中で彼は、女神カーリのお祀りの準備をしている盗賊の一団につかまった。彼らは、犠牲として祭神にささげられる男を探していたのだ。王様は女神の前につれてこられ、沐浴させらた後、神主の手に渡された。身体が完全に無傷な人間しかささげない、というのが盗賊たちのおきてであった。神主の指示によって王様の身体が調べられ、指のきずが発見された。神主はそれで彼をささげることを拒み、したがって彼は放免された。ここで王様は今日のでき事についてよく考え、指の傷が自分を救ったことに思いいたり、大臣の言葉の正しさを悟った。彼はそこで自分が大臣をつきおとした井戸のところに行き、布切れをさげて彼を引き上げた。彼が大臣に一部始終を話すと、後者もまた、もし王様が私を井戸につきおとしていらっしゃらなかったら、盗賊は私を捕らえて犠牲にしたでしょう、と言った。

GOOD COMETH OUT OF EVIL

　　A king once went out hunting with his prime minister. The king was an atheist but his prime minister had unshaken faith in God and believed that everything that befalls a man was ultimately for his good. The king saw a stag in the forest but while fixing the arrow to the bow string, one of his fingers got a cut from the sharp edge of the arrow. The prime minister assured the king that the cut he had got was for his good. This remark displeased the king, who looked around and finding a well nearby took the prime minister there and pushed him down into the well. The king told him in sarcasm that if he had fallen into the well it was for his own good.

　　The king now started to go back to his place. On his way he was seized by a gang of robbers who were preparing to worship the Goddess Kali. They were in search of a man who could be sacrificed to the deity. The king was brought before the Goddess, bathed and taken to the priest for being offered to the deity. It was customary with the robbers not to sacrifice any person who was not sound and whole in body. At the suggestion of the priest the king's body was examined and the cut in his finger was detected. Thereupon the priest declined to sacrifice the king. He was, accordingly, allowed to go. The king now began to think over all the incidents of the day and finding that it was the cut in his finger that had saved him he realized the truth of what his prime minister had told him. He then went to the well into which he had pushed down his prime minister, and letting down a piece of cloth into the well dragged him out from the well. He told the prime minister all that had happened to him, and the latter also said that had the king not pushed him into the well the robbers would have certainly caught hold of him and sacrificed him.
　　　

---