{147} Chapter Eleven
The Raja said to the Brahman, “I have heard the story of an intrepid evildoer who was very harmful, but when she was struck by a disaster similar to what she inflicted she took refuge in repentance. Now tell me a story of a person who abandons his own calling and takes up another but, when he is unable to do it well, cannot go back to his own calling and is left perplexed and regretful.”
The Brahman replied, “ ‘For every job there are those to do it.’ Anyone who turns away from his hereditary calling or acquired skill and tries to do a job for which he is not fit will doubtlessly fail and be unable to profit from it, but then it will not be possible for him to return to his first job. As they have said, ‘A skill is not forgotten, but its fine points can be forgotten.’ A person should remain in his own calling and not stretch his hand out in longing for every new limb or be tempted by the beauty of its blossoms and leaves since one cannot be certain of the sweetness of its fruit. The Prophet said, ‘He who is granted a thing should stick to it.’ Appropriate to this is the story of the ascetic.”
“How was that?” asked the Raja.
It has been related that in the land of Kannauj there was a righteous man. He was observant of his faith and careful of his religious duties, focused his attention on the customs of the wise, spent his days doing charitable works, abstained from love of the world and illicit acquisition, and was free of any taint of sanctimoniousness, spite, and hypocrisy.
One day a traveler was welcomed warmly as a guest in the ascetic’s dwelling. When he had settled in the ascetic asked, “Where are you coming from, and where are you going?”1
{148} The guest replied, “My story is a long one. If you would like to hear it, I will recount some of it in brief.”
“Anyone with good sense can learn something from listening to any tale,” said the ascetic, “and can make his way over a bridge of metaphor to the path of truth. Tell your tale without fear, and recount to me all the benefits and disadvantages you have found in your travels.”
“Know, O ascetic of the age, that I am originally from the land of the Franks. I was a baker there, and the oven of my breast was constantly inflamed with the fire of greed, and with all my endeavor scarcely did I receive so much as a loaf of bread from the table of destiny. I was friends with a farmer, and we constantly trod the path of friendship and sincerity. In friendship and in order to assist me the farmer would send to my shop wheat I could use. I paid him for it over time, and it was easy for him to give me a lot of time to pay. One day he took me to one of his orchards and hosted me as gentlemen are wont to do. After we had partaken of food we began to converse and he asked me how much profit I made. I told him and said, ‘My capital in the shop is twenty loads of wheat, and the profit I make on it is enough to feed my family, which is about ten or twelve.’
“ ‘Goodness,’ said the farmer, ‘the profit from your labor is not enough to base anything on. I had imagined that you made great profit and had a large income, but I see I was mistaken.’
“ ‘Sir,’ said I, ‘what is your work like, and what is your profit and capital?’
“ ‘I have little capital but great profit,’ he said. ‘For the handful of seed I plant I get large crops, and we would never be satisfied with a return of ten times what we put into it.’
“I was astonished and said, ‘How can this be?’
“ ‘Do not be surprised,’ said the farmer, ‘for there is great profit in it. When a poppy seed, which is the smallest of all seeds, falls into good ground and grows it sends up around twenty stalks or more. On every stalk there is a poppy pod with more seeds than can be counted. From this you can see that the profit from our labor is beyond reckoning.’
{149} “When I heard this a craving for the profit of farming took root in my head. I closed my shop and started getting together implements of agriculture. In my quarter there was a dervish known for his good character. When he realized that I was abandoning my trade and taking up a new calling he summoned me and chided me, saying, ‘Master, be content with what you are given and do not seek more, for the label of greed is shameful and the greedy come to an ignominious end. Anyone who enjoys contentment is a king, and any who suffers the stigma of greed sinks to the level of demons and beasts.’
“ ‘I do not derive so much profit from the labor in which I was engaged,’ I said, ‘and I have realized that the benefits of farming are many. I imagine I will profit from it and make an easy living.’ ”
The old ascetic said, “You have been making your living from a trade that enabled you to make a decent living. The work you now propose to engage in is laborious. You may not be able to do it. Not everything that emerges from the hidden recesses of wishing accords with desire. Do not be a fool and do not abandon your job, for he who abandons his trade and takes up work for which he is not suited suffers what happened to the crane.”
“How was that?” the guest asked.
It is related that a washerman worked on the bank of a river. Every day he would see a crane standing on the river’s edge catching worms in the mud, and when it was content it would return to its nest. One day a sharp-taloned hawk appeared and caught a fat partridge. The hawk ate some of it, left the rest, and departed. The crane thought to itself, “This bird with such a small body hunts large animals while I, with such a huge body, content myself with miserable ones. This can only come from lack of ambition. It would be better for me henceforth not to bother with small things but rather to cast the lasso of my ambition to the crenellations of the celestial sphere.” Therefore it stopped hunting worms and waited to hunt doves and partridges. When the washerman saw the crane’s consternation and how it abandoned its labor he was amazed and watched. By chance a pigeon appeared in the sky. The crane flew up to catch it, but the pigeon headed down to the edge of the water {150} and got away. The crane followed it down and landed on the riverbank, but its feet got stuck in the mud, and the harder it tried to fly off the more it sank into the mud and its feathers got covered in it. The washerman came, grabbed it, and started home. Along the way he met a friend who asked, “What is this?”
“This is a crane that wanted to do the job of a hawk and did itself in,” he replied.
“I have told this story that you may know that everyone should stick to his own job and not take up a trade for which he is not suited.”
“When the old ascetic told this story, my ambitions became even greater, and not only did I not listen to his words, which had been spoken in sympathy, but I also remained fixed in my resolve. I gave up baking and used the little capital I had to outfit myself for agriculture. I planted some seed and waited for my crops. At this point I got into financial straits because what I had derived from the bakery shop had covered daily expenses, but now I would have to wait a year before I saw any profit. I told myself I had made a mistake by not listening to the words of elders. Now I was faced with daily expenditures and had no income from any source. I would have to borrow a sum, reopen my bakery, and go back to my old job. I therefore went to one of the merchants in town, borrowed some money, and reopened my shop, putting one of my employees in charge of it. I went back and forth, sometimes going out into the fields to see to the farming and sometimes coming to the market to see to the shop. After two or three months had passed that employee had embezzled everything, and there was nothing left of either my capital or my profit. All sorts of disasters struck my crops, and I got back not even a tenth of what I had spent.
“I went back to that neighbor and told him of my situation in detail and explained how I had taken up two jobs and lost on both of them. The old ascetic laughed and said, “How like is your condition to that of the man who sacrificed his beard to the wiles of women!”
“How was that?” I asked.
{151} The Man Who Lost His Beard
It has been related that a man had two wives. One was old, and the other was young. The man’s beard was salt-and-pepper. He loved both his wives very much, and he would spend a day and night in the house of each. It was his custom, when he came into either house, to lay his head in the wife’s lap and sleep. One day he went to the old wife’s house and, as usual, laid his head in her lap and went to sleep. The old woman looked at his salt-and-pepper beard and said to herself, “What could be better than for me to pluck out the few black hairs in this man’s beard so that it will be totally white and not appeal to that young wife? When he sees no desire on her part he will understand that she has grown tired of him and the fire of his love for her will be quenched. He will stop loving her and be totally devoted to me.” Therefore she plucked from his beard all the black hairs she could.
The next day he went to the young wife’s house and as usual put his head in her lap and went to sleep. The young wife saw white hairs in his beard and thought to herself, “These white hairs should be plucked out so his beard will be completely black. When he sees himself with a black beard he will detest the old wife and want only me.” Therefore she plucked out what she could of the white hairs. When this had gone on for a time one day he put his hand up to stroke his beard and realized that there was no hair left. He cried out, but it was to no avail.
“Your situation is just like this. You spent some of your capital on the bakery shop and lost some on farming. Now you see neither bread baked in your oven nor crops harvested on your farm.”
“When I heard this I realized that what the old ascetic was saying was true: I had gotten nothing from my labor but regret. All I had would not suffice to repay the loan, so I figured I should put into practice the saying ‘Flight from what cannot be borne is a custom of the apostles.’ That night I fled from the city and proceeded stage by stage in terror until I had traversed a vast distance. After a time I received news that my family had died and my creditors had taken all my possessions to satisfy the loan. Despairing of returning to my homeland, I kept going and have been consoling myself by meeting {152} with sympathetic people until this moment, when the mirror of my heart has been polished by meeting you. Such is my tale.”
The ascetic said, “Your words have the aroma of truth, and my heart testifies to the veracity of your story. If you have endured the torment of exile and the travail of travel for a few days, you have acquired good experiences and learned something of the manners and customs of others. Henceforth you will pass your time with ease of mind and freedom from worry. ‘The evening of grief is ended, and the dawn of enjoyment has broken.’ ”
The guest was glad at the sight of the host, and the host, delighted to have an opportunity to talk with his guest, began to expound. Now the ascetic was one of the children of Israel,2 and he spoke Hebrew well and conversed charmingly in it. The guest liked his manner of speech and wanted to learn that language. First he praised him and said, “I have never seen such eloquence or heard anything more expressive.” Then he said, “I have every expectation that you will teach it to me, and it would befit your gallantry to grant my request since without any prior acquaintanceship you have honored me as your guest. Now that our affection and companionship are confirmed, if you would have compassion and grant my request I would be most grateful.”
“I will obey and do as you request,” said the ascetic. “If your desire is true and you are determined to do it, I will consider it a duty to teach it to you.”
The guest tried hard for a long time, but in the end the ascetic said one day, “You have taken on a difficult labor and gone to a lot of trouble. No one who abandons his own language and opposes his forebears in their tongue, craft, or anything else is likely to succeed.”
“To follow one’s fathers and forefathers in ignorance and error is a result of mindlessness and foolishness,” said the guest. “To acquire new skills and attainments is a sign of wisdom and perspicacity and proof of intelligence and discernment.”
“I have instructed you,” said the ascetic, “but I fear that the results of your efforts will be regret—just like the crow that wanted to learn to strut like the partridge.”
“How was that?” asked the guest.
{153} The Crow That Wanted to Walk Like a Partridge
It is related that a crow saw a partridge walking. The partridge’s manner of strutting appealed to him, and he yearned for the harmoniousness of its movements and agility of its limbs since natures are attracted to beauty and seek it out. In short, the crow wanted to learn how to do it. It tried for a time and ran after the partridge, but it never learned how to do it, and in the meantime it forgot its own manner of walking and could never get it back.
“I have told this story that you may know that you are making vain efforts and wasting your time. You have abandoned the language of your ancestors but cannot learn the Hebrew tongue. It has been said that the most ignorant of men is he who takes on a labor for which his skill and lineage are unsuited.”
This chapter has to do with the prudence and caution of kings. Any ruler who is inclined to control his realm, see to the welfare of his subjects, patronize his friends, and eradicate his foes will see the necessity of protecting himself and not letting vile, unworthy persons think they are as good as the highborn or that they are equal to persons with whom they are unfit to be compared. The adoption of servants and maintenance of stations are of great importance in regal affairs and the code of policy, and only by maintaining honor can the distinction be made between a ruler and a farmer. If the distinctions among classes are done away with and the lowest people are equal to the middle classes, and the middle classes equivalent to the nobles, the grandeur of the king and the awe of rulership will be lost. The harm and disruption will be great, and the consequences grave. The histories of kings and nobles of the ages show the importance of keeping this door closed.
This has been a story of somebody who abandoned his trade and took up a job for which he was unsuited by heredity and disposition. It takes a wise man to read these chapters for understanding, not for amusement, so that he may benefit from them and in order that his character may be free of flaw and blemish.
1. What follows relies mostly on Kashifi’s version (pp. 478–84). Nasrullah’s text at this point becomes so difficult to follow that massive corruption of the text has to be suspected. Kashifi seems to have concurred, replacing it with what is translated here and adding a couple of short anecdotes.
2. At this point we return to Nasrullah’s text.