Prayer Corner

Welcome to the Prayer Corner! Here you can find prayers, stories or wise sayings that encourage reflection on a topic, or simply make you say, 'Aaah'. If you feel that you would like to contribute to this section, please feel free to paste your article into the comments below and we will add it as a new post...

Wisdom from the East

Good Fortune Bad Fortune

There was a man in a village who had a horse. He was the only one in the village who had a horse. As a matter of fact he was the only one in the whole countryside who had a horse. He was a generous and kind man and allowed the villagers to use the horse for their needs and the needs of the village.

The villagers thought he was a little strange, because whenever they said to him, ‘What good fortune to have a horse’, he would always reply, ‘Good fortune bad fortune who knows’.

One day the horse ran into the forest and disappeared. The whole village was really upset at this misfortune for the horse owner and for themselves. They went to the horse owner and said, ‘What bad fortune has befallen you’. But he answered quite calmly, ‘Good fortune bad fortune who knows’. The villagers thought this attitude to be quite strange indeed. He loses his treasured horse and would still reply to those in sympathy with his loss, ‘Good fortune bad fortune who knows’.

Several months passes and an extraordinary event came to pass. The horse returned but not alone. The horse came back with a herd of wild horses. The villagers rushed to congratulate the horse owner on his good fortune. However, when they wished him well on his good fortune he calmly replied, ‘Good fortune bad fortune who knows’.

Some weeks later when the horse owners’ son was breaking in one of the wild horses he had a accident and broke both his legs badly. However, when the villagers visited the horse owner and said what bad fortune had come his way he simply replied, ‘Good fortune bad fortune who knows’.

Just at this time war broke out in that country and soldiers come to the village to conscript the young men for the army. The villagers were devastated to see all their fine young men going off to the war. The soldiers would not take the horse owners son because he was of no use to them with broken legs. When the villagers said to the horse owner, ‘What good fortune your son did not have to go to war’, he simply replied, ‘Good fortune bad fortune who knows’.