One day a King was out with his manservant preparing to hunt wild animals. The manservant was very close friends with the King and was always by his side. The manservant had a habit of saying that everything “was a good thing.” The King would often laugh and shake his head at this odd way of thinking.
The manservant was diligent in cleaning the King’s gun and when he was done, he smiled at him.
The King took the gun and aimed for his first shot of the evening. To his surprise the gun misfired, blowing his thumb off.
“Oh no!” the manservant screamed as he reached over to help bandage the wound. The King screamed and cursed the manservant but the manservant only shook his head and said, “It’s a good thing.”
The King was infuriated by his lack of empathy and banished him to jail.
A year went by and the King never replaced his manservant. One day he was out in the woods preparing to hunt alone. He took out his gun and peered into the area for his game when all of a sudden he heard a rustling noise.
Before he knew it he was being tied up and carried to a nearby clearing. A group of cannabilists had captured him and were preparing to burn him and eat him. He screamed out for help but no one could hear him.
They lit the fire and stood around to watch after tieing him to a tree. Then, in a flurry of confusion, they all spoke rapidly to each other in a foreign tongue and quickly released him, pointing to his missing thumb and shaking their heads.
It turns out that they had a superstition that prohibited them from eating anything that was not completely whole.
The King ran back to his camp and straight to the jailhouse where his manservant had been imprisoned. He opened the jail cell and kneeled before his manservant, apologizing profusely.
“You were right,” he admitted. “Losing my thumb was a good thing. You were right. I’m sorry. It was very bad of me to send you to prison.”
The manservant took both of the King’s hands in his and said, “No. It was a good thing.”
“How could that have been a good thing? I had you locked up here when you were my most trusted friend.”
“It was a good thing,” the manservant insisted.
“No! It wasn’t. How can I repay you?”
“Sir, it was a good thing.”
“Why are you saying that?” the King asked.
The manservant lowered his gaze and spoke softly, “Sir, if you hadn’t had me locked up in prison, I would have been with you.”
For My Savvy Sisters: Have you ever been in a situation that you thought was a bad thing but ended up being a benefit to you?
