Page:Barlaam and Josaphat. English lives of Buddha.djvu/124
VII.a. The Heathen King and the Believing Vizier.
Z. xi., L. p. 113, C. 442.
There was once a king good in everything, except that he was wanting in faith. His vizier desired to cure him of his disbelief, and one night went out with him into the city. Seeing a light in a hut, they looked through and saw a poor couple, clothed in rags, but enjoying themselves with dancing and singing. Then the King asked, "How is it that you and I, so rich in honour and wealth, have never enjoyed so much pleasure as these fools?"
"Why, what do you think of their life, King?" answered the vizier.
"More wretched, unhappy, and horrid than any I have ever seen," answered the King.
"Then," said the Vizier, "Know, King, this our life, even of us more fortunately placed of men, seems but as their life in the eyes of the Most High. Only those who seek imperishable wealth are truly happy. And that wealth is, belief in our Lord and Saviour."
[Occurrences in Barlaam. — In Arab,, Georg., Heb., and Gr. (Z, xi., L. p. 113).
Indian Original. — Unknown, but the happy pair seem to belong to the caste of Mehter (cf. Kehatsek, p. 145, l.c.; Kuhn, 22 n.).
Derivates. — Jacques de Vitry, Exempla, ed. Crane, 78; Wright, Latin Stories, 4 ; Libro de Enxemplos, 288 ; Suchomlinoff, Cyrill of Turoff (Russ, 1858), pp. 50-3 (cf. Kuhn, 74 n.).]