A king once went out hunting with his prime minister. The king was an atheist but his prime minister had unshaken faith in God and believed that everything that befalls a man was ultimately for his good. The king saw a stag in the forest but while fixing the arrow to the bow string, one of his fingers got a cut from the sharp edge of the arrow. The prime minister assured the king that the cut he had got was for his good. This remark displeased the king, who looked around and finding a well nearby, took the prime minister there and pushed him down into the well. The king told him sarcastically that if he had fallen into the well it was for his own good
The king now started to go back to his place. On his way he was seized by a gang of robbers who were preparing to worship the Goddess Kali. They were in search of a man who could be sacrificed to the deity. The king was brought before the Goddess, bathed and taken to the priest for being offered to the deity. It was customary with the robbers not to sacrifice any person who was not sound and whole in body. At the suggestion of the priest, the king’s body was examined and the cut in his finger was detected. Thereupon the priest declined to sacrifice the king. He was, accordingly, allowed to go. The king now began to think over all the incidents of the day and finding that it was the cut in his finger that had saved him he realised the truth of what his prime minister had told him. He then went to the well into which he had pushed down his prime minister, and letting down a piece of cloth into the well, pulled him out of it. He told the prime minister all that had happened to him, and the latter also said that had the king not pushed him into the well, the robbers would have certainly caught hold of him and sacrificed him.