We're Looking for the Second Wanderer
Once upon a time, there was a wanderer who lived in the country known to the world as the Land. His family had given to his every whim. His friends forgave easily his trespasses. He learned to believe he was superior to others. He saw a number of people working peacefully in a field where they were growing wheat. "There is a monster in that field," he told them. They looked and saw a watermelon -- a fruit they knew little about.
He offered to kill the "monster" for them. When he had cut the melon from its stalk, he took a slice and began to eat it. The spurting red juice terrified the people. He told them other terrible watermelons would come and he alone could protect them. He needed only their allegiance. They gave him their fealty. He told them men who sow the seeds of watermelons were in their midst. They gave him their freedoms so he could easily find the men. He told them he must fight their new foes before they invaded the Land. They gave him their children to lead the fight. He told them often of evils that might invade their land and required greater and greater sacrifices until the people neglected their wheat to huddle in their homes thinking only of monsters in the fields.
It so happened that at a later time another man wandered into the land now known as the Land of Fools, and he too saw the watermelon in the field. But, instead of offering to help them with the "monster," he agreed with them that it must be dangerous and by tiptoeing away from it with them, he gained their confidence. He spent a long time with them in their houses until he could teach them little by little the basic facts, which would enable them not only to lose their fear but even to cultivate melons themselves.
An altered version of Land of Fools, Indries Shah, The Way of the Sufi. NY: E.P. Dutton & Co. Inc., 1970. The original Sufi version introduced to me by way of Kevin at nadablog.com)
