Story of the Beggar and the King

 From an email from Crack your Egg

Here's a nice story for you:

 

Upon coming out of his palace one morning, a king encounters a beggar. 

 

The king is in a good mood, so he asks the beggar:

 

"What do you want?" 

 

So the beggar laughs and replies: 

 

"You ask as if you can actually fulfill my desire!" 

 

The king is a little bit offended, so he replies:  

 

"Come on, look at me... I'm the king for crying out loud. Of course I can. Tell me, what is it?"

 

The beggar warns: 

 

"Better think twice before you promise anything."

 

     Now, side note before we go on -

     you've got to realize:

 

[+] The beggar was no ordinary beggar...

 

[+] He was actually the king's past life master. 

 

And in their former life, he had promised:

 

"I'll come to try and wake you up in our next life. This life you've missed, but I'll come back to help you out."

 

     So back to our story...

 

The king - obviously not recognizing his old friend - insists:

 

"Look man, I'll fulfill anything you ask. I'm a very powerful king, so I'm sure I can fulfill whatever it is."

 

So the beggar responds:

 

"Well, alright then... It's a very simple desire. Can you please fill this begging bowl for me?"

 

"Sure thing!" said the king, and he instructed his vizier to fill it with money.

 

The vizier did. But when he poured it into the bowl, it immediately disappeared.

 

So he poured in more... and more... and more... 

 

But every time he did, it would instantly vanish. 

 

So the begging bowl remained empty.

 

Clearly, this was no ordinary event, so word quickly spread throughout the kingdom. 

 

It didn't take long for a huge crowd to gather.

 

Now the king felt the pressure:

 

He was a proud man, and his power and prestige were now at stake.

 

So he told his vizier:

 

"Listen - if I'm to lose my kingdom over this, so be it... but I can't let this beggar make a fool out of me."

 

So he continued to empty his wealth into the bowl. 

 

We're talking diamonds... pearls... emeralds... the whole kit and caboodle. 

 

No kidding - he emptied his whole treasury in that bowl. 

 

And yet, it just seemed bottomless - everything immediately vanished... like snow before the sun.

 

Finally, as the crowd stood in utter silence, the king dropped at the beggars feet and admitted his defeat:

 

“Okay, I give up... You won... But before you go, please be so kind to fulfill my curiosity... What's the secret of this darn begging bowl?”

 

The beggar replied humbly:

 

"There is no secret... The bowl is simply made up of human desire."