The owner asked, “How many are in your party?”
“Only we two,” answered the king.
“All right, you may stay,” said the owner. So the king and his minister entered the house and spent the night with the owner and his family. In the morning they thanked him for his hospitality and went on their way.
The following evening they stopped at another cottage and asked, “May we spend the night here?” This time the owner immediately said, “Yes, come in, come in, come in! You can definitely stay with us. By the way, how many of you are there?”
“We are two,” replied the king.
“Very good, come in,” said the owner. The king and the minister passed the night in the cottage and, in the morning, they returned to the palace. Then the king asked his minister to go back to the second cottage and bring the owner to the court. The king wanted to give him a very large amount of money.
“Both of them gave us shelter, your Majesty,” said the minister. “Why are you rewarding only one of the householders? What about the other one? Kindly tell me the reason.”
The king said, “There is a great difference between these two subjects of mine. The first one asked us how many we were. After he found out that there were only two of us, he invited us to come inside and stay with him. The second one immediately welcomed us to stay and only then did he enquire how many of us there were. He offered us shelter first, before asking any question. Therefore he is much more hospitable than the other fellow, and I would like to reward him for his kindness. Do you see the difference?”
Now the minister did see the difference and he was very grateful to the king for illumining him.From:Sri Chinmoy,Amusement I enjoy, enlightenment I study, part 3, Agni Press, 1997
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/aie_3