Page 52 - The Book of Rumi

The Snake Catcher and the Thief

petty thief was feeling supremely fortunate because, earlier that day, he
A had succeeded in stealing a massive snake from a snake catcher. Little did
the witless thief know that it had been the snake catcher’s fi rst catch, and even
less was he aware that the snake’s venom was deadly! Meanwhile, the snake
catcher was himself oblivious to his luck in losing the snake, of whose danger
he was himself unaware. Distraught at his loss, though, he schemed about how
to fi nd the thief and retrieve his precious catch, which he had hoped would
fetch him a tidy sum.
Not long afterward, the snake catcher was making his way into town, toy-
ing with various plans to catch the thief. All of a sudden, he saw the thief’s
dead body by the roadside and recognized him instantly.
“It must have been my snake that took his life!” the snake catcher gasped
as he spotted the tracks the snake had left by the side of the corpse as it
wiggled away. “I prayed so hard to fi nd this poor soul and get my catch back,
believing I’d been cheated. Praise to God that my prayers went unheeded.
While I thought I had lost a salable snake, in fact I had gained back my life!”
Many are our wishes and prayers that, beyond our ability to see, will only
bring us loss or death, which God Almighty turns a deaf ear to simply out of
His benevolence.

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