Once upon a time, there was a king who had a very loyal and wise minister. The minister had a strange habit: no matter what happened—good or bad—he would always say:
“Everything that happens, happens for good.”
One day, the king accidentally cut off his finger. He was in great pain and extremely angry. The minister, true to his habit, said once again:
“Your Majesty, everything that happens, happens for good.”
The king became furious.
“How can it possibly be good that I have lost my finger?” he shouted.
And he ordered that the minister be thrown into prison.
Some time later, the king went hunting in the forest. There, he was captured by members of a tribe who intended to offer him as a sacrifice to their gods. However, when they noticed that he was missing a finger, they declared that he was not “whole” and therefore unfit for sacrifice. So they set him free.
The king then realized that losing his finger had indeed saved his life. He returned to the palace and ordered that the minister be brought out of prison.
“You were right,” he said. “Losing my finger turned out to be a blessing. But tell me, what good did it do you to be imprisoned?”
The minister calmly replied:
“Your Majesty, if I had not been in prison, I would have been hunting with you. And since I am whole, they would have sacrificed me instead.”
And so, the king learned that sometimes we cannot immediately see the good hidden within what seems to be misfortune.
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