40. The thief who tested the king
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A crooked thief was sitting on a tree in a forest, looking for somebody to loot. He saw a sadhu passing by quietly below. Just to test the sadhu, he threw a stone on him. That sadhu just looked up, but by his nature he was such a soft, happy, graceful person, that he did not react with any anger. He thought that maybe this man is mentally sick, that is why he is throwing stones at people. So he raised his hand and blessed the thief, thinking, 'Let you be blessed, let you be healed, so that you will not do this kind of thing again!'
The thief thought, 'Ah! I think, in this part of the country, people bless you if you throw stones at them!' Soon, a king who was on a hunting trip arrived on the same route with his retinue. What do you think this foolish thief did? He threw a stone on king also! The king's people just caught him and cut off his head!
Understand: the thief gave what he had, the sadhu gave what he had and the king gave what he had! The sadhu had a healing nature, so he healed the thief. But the thief's nature was to be violent, so naturally he attracted his own destruction at the hands of the king.