Your compassionate words have solved my problems⁸

There was a king who was very good, kind and just. Everybody admired him and loved him. One day, as the king was about to get up from his throne after having finished his day’s routine work, an old lady came up to him. “I have something to tell you, O King,” she said.

The king said, “Please, I am tired. Tomorrow please come and speak to me.”

But the old lady said, “No, you have to hear what I want to say today.”

“I am tired,” the king said again, “but all right, tell me.”

“If you don’t listen to me today, if you don’t give me fifteen minutes’ time without any interruptions, I will pray to God to give us another King. I thought you were very kind-hearted, but since you are proving yourself otherwise, I will pray to God to replace you.”

Everybody laughed and laughed, but the king said, “Don’t laugh at her. I am going to listen to her. It is not because I am afraid of her scolding or curse. God, out of His infinite Compassion, has made me King. Tomorrow He can easily replace me, not because of her request, but if in any way I am not being divine. He will do what He wants to do with me. If I am really compassionate, I can spend fifteen minutes listening to her, no matter how tired and exhausted I am. It is not because I may lose my throne, but because this is the compassionate thing to do. How many unimportant things I have done today! Who knows, this poor woman probably has serious problems. That’s why she has come to me. When I have problems, I know how I suffer. So let me listen and see if I can be of some help to her.”

The old lady said, “O King, your compassionate words have taken away all my worries and anxieties. You are really great. You are greater than any other king in God’s creation. Your compassionate words in silence have solved all my problems.”