The Story of the Young Bandit

A band of Arab robbers had settled on a mountaintop and blocked the caravan route. The townspeople were terrified by their schemes, and the king's army had been defeated, because they had seized an impregnable stronghold on a peak and made it their refuge. The rulers of the surrounding lands took counsel on how to end this menace, saying that if this gang kept on like this for long, resistance would become impossible. A tree that has only just taken root can be pulled up by the strength of a single man. But leave it standing for years, and you couldn't tear it out with a winch. A spring at its source can be dammed with a spade; once it swells to a river, an elephant can't cross it. It was agreed to set someone to spy on them and wait for the right moment. When the robbers had ridden out against some group and left their base empty, a few battle-hardened, experienced men were sent to hide in a mountain ravine. That night the robbers came back from their raiding, laden with loot; they took off their weapons and set down their gear and plunder. The first enemy to fall upon them was sleep. When a good part of the night had passed, the disk of the sun sank into darkness, like Jonah swallowed in the belly of the fish. The brave men sprang from ambush, bound each man's hands to his shoulders, and at dawn brought them before the king. He ordered them all put to death. As it happened, among them was a youth in the first bloom of his life, the down of his cheeks just breaking into green. One of the ministers kissed the foot of the throne, pressed his face to the ground in intercession, and said: This boy has not yet tasted the garden of life or enjoyed the springtime of his youth. I hope your generosity and noble nature will grant me the favor of sparing his blood. The king frowned at these words; it did not sit well with his lofty judgment, and he said: One born of a bad root will never catch the light of the good; training an unworthy soul is like piling walnuts on a dome. It is better to cut off the corrupt line of these people and tear out the root of their stock, for putting out a fire yet leaving an ember, or killing a snake yet keeping its young, is no work for the wise. Even if the cloud rained down the water of life, you would never pick fruit from the willow branch. Don't waste your days on a base man, for you can't get sugar from a reed of matting. The minister heard this and, willingly or not, agreed, praising the king's sound judgment. He said: What my lord, may his reign endure, has said is the very truth: had this boy grown up among those villains, he would have taken on their nature and become one of them. But I hope that, raised among good and righteous people, he may be shaped by them and take on the ways of the wise, for he is still a child, and the traits of rebellion and defiance are not yet fixed in him. As the saying goes: Every child is born on the pure disposition; it is his parents who make him a Jew, a Christian, or a Zoroastrian. Lot's own wife kept company with the wicked, and the house of prophethood was lost to her. The dog of the Seven Sleepers, for a few days, followed the good, and became almost human. When he had said this, a group of the king's companions joined him in pleading, until the king let go of his desire for the boy's blood and said: I pardon him, though I do not think it wise. Do you know what Zal said to the hero Rustam? Never treat an enemy as small and helpless. We have often seen how a spring, small at its source, swells until it sweeps away camel and load. In short, they raised the boy in comfort and luxury and appointed tutors to educate him, until he learned fine speech, ready answers, and the etiquette of serving kings, and everyone found him admirable. Once, the minister mentioned to the king a hint of the boy's virtues, saying that the training of wise men had had its effect on him and driven the old ignorance out of his nature. The king smiled and said: In the end a wolf's cub becomes a wolf, even if it grows up among human beings. A year or two passed. A gang of local ruffians attached themselves to him and formed an alliance, so that when the chance came he killed the minister and both his sons, carried off untold wealth, took his father's place in the robbers' cave, and turned rebel. The king bit his finger in astonishment and said: How can anyone forge a fine sword from bad iron? A worthless man, O sage, cannot be made worthy by training. The rain, whose nature is beyond dispute in its gentleness, grows tulips in the garden and weeds in the salt marsh. Salty ground yields no hyacinth; don't waste your seed and labor on it. Doing good to the wicked is just like doing wrong to good men.