Story 19: The King and the Salt

They say that once, when the just king Nushirvan was hunting, they roasted the game he had caught, but there was no salt. A servant went to a village to fetch some. Nushirvan said: Pay for the salt, so that it does not become a habit and the village is not ruined. They asked: What harm can come from so little? He replied: The foundation of injustice in the world was small at first, but each newcomer added to it, until it grew to what we see today. If a king takes a single apple from a peasant's orchard, his servants will pull the whole tree up by its roots. For five eggs a tyrant king allows himself to seize, his soldiers will skewer a thousand chickens on their spits.