Stories

There are a couple of stories that I keep remembering and want to share. Neither of these are my own, but I am probably not quoting exactly. I'm not going to moralize; you can figure those out yourselves.

The first one is a story that has been pinned to the dining room bulletin board since "from the Internet" was a novelty. All I know about where it comes from is that it ends with a Christian moral and it's labeled "Adult Corner" with a funky glyph. And it goes a little like this:

Once in a land far away, there was a king. The king had a friend that, no matter what happened, always remarked, "This is good!" This annoyed the king to no end, but he kept his friend around anyways.
One day the king and his friend went out hunting. The friend loaded the king's rifle and handed it to the king, who sighted a lion. He aimed and squeezed the trigger, causing the gun to explode. When the dust cleared, the king and his friend realized that the king had lost his thumb.
"This is good!" the friend remarked.
"No, this is not good!" the king exclaimed, and threw his friend into the dungeons.
A while later, the king went out hunting again, and subsequently got captured by cannibals. As the cannibals were putting the king into the fire, they realized the king was missing a thumb. Because they did not eat people who were not whole, they let the king go free.
The king went back to his castle and immediately let his friend out of jail.
"I am sorry. It was bad of me to put you into jail," said the king to the friend.
"No, it was good. Everything worked out how it was supposed to," replied the friend.
The king was confused, and asked why.
The friend replied "If I had not been here, I would have been with you."  

I know even less about the origin of this second one, but I know I found it near the beginning of my obsession with OKGO and Rube Goldberg machines. It's shorter and still relevant. Here's my retelling:

Once a Persian sultan who felt like he was missing something from his life. He tried many things, but still couldn't find what he was looking for.
So he called a meeting of the wisest philosophers in the land and gave them a challenge - find him something that would make him happy when he was sad and sad when he was happy. Whoever achieved this seemingly impossible task would receive riches and renown beyond his wildest dreams.
And so they began.
One brought him a bracelet of silver and gold as a reminder that beauty exists, but that only made him temporarily happy.
Another brought a tiger pelt as a reminder that all things die, but that only made him sad.
And so the gifts kept coming - jewels and plates and plants and people - and none succeeded in making the king happy when he was sad and sad when he was happy. News of the contest spread far and wide.
Finally, a simple goldsmith came and presented the king with his gift - a simple golden band with the words "This too shall pass." The king broke down and wept. He had found something that would make him happy when he was sad and sad when he was happy. The goldsmith lived on, news his wealth and fame spread wide.
But he remembered, that, despite all his new riches, that nothing lasts forever and that this, too, would pass.