A MAN who was troubled in mind once swore that if his problems
were solved he would sell his house and give all the money gained
from it to the poor.
The time came when he realized that he must redeem his oath.
But he did not want to give away so much money. So he thought
of a way out.
He put the house on sale at one silver piece. Included with the
house, however, was a cat. The price asked for this animal was ten
thousand pieces of silver.
Another man bought the house and cat. The first man gave the
single piece of silver to the poor, and pocketed the ten thousand
for himself.
Many people’s minds work like this. They resolve to follow a
teaching; but they interpret their relationship with it to their own
advantage. Until they overcome this tendency by special training,
they cannot learn at all.
—
The trick described in this story, according to its dervish
teller (Sheikh Nasir el-Din Shah) may be deliberate —or it may
describe the warped mind which unconsciously performs
tricks of this kind.
The Sheikh, also known as The Lamp of Delhi’, died in
1846. His shrine is in Delhi, India. This version, attributed to
him, is from an oral tradition of the Chishti Order. It is used
to introduce the psychological technique designed to stabilize the mind, making it incapable of tricks of self-deception.