The Beggar and the Fox

A man saw a fox with no legs to run on, and stood amazed at God's kindness and craft. He wondered: how does it get through life, and how does it feed itself without hands or feet? While the wandering, pale dervish was lost in this thought, a lion arrived with a jackal in its claws. The lion ate the luckless jackal, and what was left, the fox ate its fill from. The next day the same thing happened again: the Provider sent the fox its daily food. This certainty opened the man's eyes; he went off and put all his trust in the Creator. 'From now on I'll sit in a corner like an ant, for even elephants don't win their bread by force.' For a while he tucked his chin to his chest, sure the Giver would send his food from the unseen. But no stranger cared for him, nor any friend; like a harp, he shrank to sinew, bone, and skin. When patience left him from weakness and his mind grew faint, a voice came to his ear from the wall of the prayer niche: 'Go, be a ravening lion, you fraud; don't throw yourself down like a crippled fox.' 'Strive so that, like the lion, you leave food behind; why be a fox living on another's leftovers?' 'Like the lion, a man with a strong neck: if he falls into begging like the fox, a dog is better than he.' 'Earn it with your own hands and share it with others; don't wait, ears pricked, for others' scraps.' 'Eat, as long as you can, by the strength of your own arm, for your effort will weigh in your own scales.' 'Like real men, bear the toil and bring others ease; only the spineless live off other people's labor.' 'Young man, take the hand of the old and poor; don't collapse and cry, take my hand instead.' God shows mercy to the servant through whose existence people find comfort. The head that holds a brain practices generosity; the low and small-spirited are all shell and no substance. Whoever brings good to God's creatures will find good in both this world and the next.