Sometimes behind suffering lies salvation. Just wait for the end of the story!

Once a horseman was passing by a field. When he got close enough, he saw that the peasant who was cultivating it had fallen asleep under a large apple tree. And suddenly he noticed that a poisonous scorpion was crawling into the sleeper's mouth. The rider realized that if he did not do something at once, the man would die from the scorpion's venom.

He immediately jumped from his horse, approached the sleeper and began to beat him mercilessly with his whip. The villager was startled and cried out in fear and pain. He looked at the rider with wide eyes and could not understand what was going on.

And the uninvited guest, without giving him time to come to his senses, knocked him to the ground again and forced him to eat from the rotten apples with which the ground under the tree was covered. Then he drove him to the river and, threatening him with his whip, made him drink water in large gulps.

– What have I done to you?! – groaned the peasant. "Why are you beating me like that?" Why are you harassing me!? Please let me go!

But the rider was adamant. For several hours he kept on torturing the poor man, making him eat rotten apples and drink water from the river. Finally, the peasant fell to the ground exhausted and began to vomit.

And then, along with the rotten apples and the water, the scorpion came out of his stomach.

Only then did the man realize that his tormentor was actually his savior. He began to ask for his forgiveness for all the words and insults he had said against him.

– If you had told me right away what happened, I would have accepted your "treatment" without a murmur.

"I'm afraid that's not exactly the case," replied the rider. "If I told you that you swallowed a scorpion, you probably wouldn't believe me." And if you had believed me, you would have been overcome with such fear and panic that you would probably have died in a minute. That is why I had to act like this - cruelly, but wisely.

Saying this, the rider mounted his horse and disappeared into the distance, and the still frightened villager continued to ponder the words "cruel but wise."

And at the other end of the village, the owner of the neighboring field, who watched the scene unfolding from afar, animatedly told the people gathered in the square how a cruel and merciless man tortured their fellow villager. The villagers were indignant from the bottom of their souls and unanimously decided that the world is very unfair, and there are many bad people living on earth.

Indeed, sometimes the cruelty of a wise man is much better and more useful than the kindness of a fool. Behind suffering can be salvation. That's how life often treats us. Fate deals with us cruelly and at first glance unfairly to save us.

We just have to wait for the end of the story…

The parable is part of the collection THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE. 150 PARABLES ON THE ART OF LIVING of Gnezdoto publishing house