Please Comment on This Parable: "The Kind King and the Two Neighbors"
In a land ruled by a kind king, a dispute between two neighbors arose.One night, a man, in his uncontrollable greed, stole his neighbor's cow, slaughtered it that night and sold all flesh, meat and parts to the market the early morning. That afternoon after spending all the money from the sales proceeds of the stolen cow, he suddenly felt a disturbing guilt for what he had done. He felt so deeply sorry. However, he could not go directly to his neighbor to ask pardon, mercy and forgiveness in fear of his neighbor's rage and possible curses. To liberate himself from his guilt, he went forth and submitted himself before the king, told the whole story, and asked for pardon and forgiveness for what he has done. He vowed before the king for this thing never to happen again. The king was deeply touched by the man's confession. He pitied him and asked an assurance of conversion. He embraced the man and let him go.
Hours later, his neighbor marched before the court of the king demanding justice as he reported the unfortunate incident on how his neighbor crashed into his house that night, stole his prized cow and sold it to the market at his greedy neighbor's gain.
The king told the man how his neighbor came to him hours earlier confessing the very issue. He told the man how sorry he was and how he vowed for this thing not to happen again. The king told the man how he believed in his neighbor's promise of conversion and how he took pity and pardon his offenses. With the intention to settle the dispute and propose peace to the two neighbors, he then asked the miserable man whose cow was stolen to simply forgive his neighbor, to forget about the unfortunate experience, and to support his neighbor's conversion.
The man fell silent.
In this simple story, if you are that man who has been asked to forgive, to forget and to support, how would you have felt and acted after talking to the king?
What advice could you give that man?
