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DISCOURSE 40
235
drunkard cannot do ? The great Russian writer count Leo Tolstoy has written a highly moving and instructive story. Please listen. I will narrate it to you.
A STORY
Once there was a farmer. One morning, taking with him some bread for his lunch he went to his farm. Folding it in his coat, he kept it in a bush and he began his work, in the field. He went on working upto noon; and when the horses were tired, he untied them from the plough so that they might take rest. Being hungry he took out his coat; and sat down to eat the bread he had rolled in it. He searched for the bread in the coat but, it was not there. He looked around for the bread but he could not find it. The farmer was greatly surprised. "Really amazing! No one came here. Let alone men, not even animals came. Who has taken away the bread ?" The farmer began to soliloquize.
In the bush, at a distance a devil, a messenger of Satan stood laughing. He had taken the farmer's bread. He wanted to see what the farmer would do when he found his bread was missing and how he would search for it. He thought, “Surely, the farmer would be angry. He will use strong language; and he will remember me".
The farmer, of course, was sad to find his bread missing; but he patiently began working again. He said to himself. “What had to happen has happened”. I will not die if I do not eat bread now. The person who has taken away my bread must have been in greater need than mine. May God fulfil his need”. Saying this, the farmer went to his well; drank water to his fill; rested for a while and began working in the field again".
Satan's messenger was greatly sad. His plan had failed. His plan to impel the farmer to commit a sin had failed. He thought that the farmer would pollute himself with the sin of using abusive language, He went back to Satan, the Prince of Darkness. He narrated to Satan what had happened. Satan was greatly upset; and said, "If that farmer has won a victory against you, it is your own fault. You do not know your job. If all the farmers and their wives behave thus, there will not be
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