Successor
There
was a teacher who had five disciples who thought they could succeed this
teacher, as he was getting old. Everyone knew that he (the
teacher) has to choose a successor soon. One day this teacher
called these five disciples and gave them each one hen and said, "Go and
kill them where no one can see you doing it."
One
went behind the barn and looked around, there was no one and he killed
the hen he had. Another went to the cellar and asked everyone to
leave and made sure there was no one there and then killed the hen he
had. The third walked a long time into a very remote place and did
the act. The fourth one knew a cave that no one ever went to and
he went there and did what his teacher asked them to do.
These all took around a
few hours, but the fifth one did not show up the whole day. Indeed
everyone become very worried and were wondering what happened to him.
It was late at night that he showed up in his teacher door with the
chicken still alive in his hand.
Everyone was surprised
and thought the teacher would surely be very upset with him. First
he spent so much time out there that everyone became worried sick and
then after all this time he still had the hen alive with him and did not
do what the teacher asked him!
The teacher asked him,
“What happened? Why didn’t you kill the hen?” The disciple
said, “Well, wherever I went, God was there. I was not alone."
The teacher said, ”Yes,
you know the truth and God better than these other disciples." He
was chosen as the successor.
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