I was Wasting my Life until I found This Ancient piece of Advice.
By: Jose Hermida
Tags: Life Lessons, Purpose Driven Life, Time Management, Knowledge, Action

Once upon a time, in a faraway land, a very prosperous and vibrant Kingdom was on the rise, and like any great endeavor it wasn’t problem free. This situation had severely affected the young King’s mood, who went from cheerful and playful to sober and ending up in being plain grumpy in a couple of years. The everyday obligations were taking the best part of him.

One day, as he was ready to leave the royal chamber to start his activities, followed by some members of the court, something caught his attention in the wrong way: there was a subtle humming in the room.

He turned his head to look for the source of such “noise” when his gaze bumped with one of the servants that was cleaning his room.

Despite being one of lowest ranking servants, it was evident that he was happy — too happy — and this did not come across very well with the King who found such attitude annoying to say the least.

«How is it possible that he is happier than me? Most likely he barely has anything to his name, he spends the whole day working for at the castle, and the little time that he has left it’s dedicated to his personal errands? »

Without thinking it twice he raised his voice and said:

«You, stop humming! »

The room went completely silent.

Everyone was staring at each other trying to identify to whom the King was talking to.

- Are you talking to me your majesty? — asked the servant shyly.

«Yes, I’m talking to you, stop it right now! »

With a smile spreading across his face he immediately said:

- Of course, your majesty, with pleasure.

«And make sure you erase that silly smile from your face as well, or I will have you incarcerated, you hear me? »

- Right away your majesty, thank you.

The King and his entourage went back to work but, for the rest of the day, the memory of the servant humming was stuck in his head.

The day went by and dinner was served, the King then turned his head to speak with his oldest and wisest counselor:

«I have been restless the whole day thinking about that petty servant; his silly smile and that annoying humming… I can’t believe he is happy having so little! And on the other hand, here you have me, the greatest King this land has ever seen and still… I am not »

— Well your majesty, you see, sometimes ignorance is bliss: he has few, but enough to survive and that is all he knows.

«I bet there is nothing in this world that would spoil his happiness, even if his limbs were cutoff »

His counselor made a slight smile and went on to say:

— I wouldn’t be so sure your majesty,

Every man is able to find a way to ruin his own happiness.

«My dear friend, I think you have been drinking too much wine now and it’s taking over your good judgment! »

— You don’t believe me?

«I hear what you are saying, but I think this time you are wrong».

— Actually, your majesty it’s very simple: if he was given the chance to become a member of “the circle of the ninety-nine”, I can guarantee you, his life will be as difficult and miserable as yours or mine.

«The circle of the ninety-nine? I’ve never heard of such thing, what is that? »

— Well, if you don’t mind losing your most cheerful servant… I can show you what that is.

«I don’t mind, show me! »

­­­ — Very well, meet me at the gate of the castle once dinner is over, and bring with you a bag with ninety-nine pieces of gold, not more, not less.

The King could barely wait until dinner was over; he rushed to his chambers, grabbed a small leather pouch, opened the treasure chest and proceeded to fill in the exact number of gold pieces that he was instructed. He then pulled the cords to close it and begun to walk briskly towards the gate of the castle; when he arrived, the old counselor was already there.

— Did you bring what I requested your majesty?

«Here you have it my dear friend, now what else do we need to do? »

— Great! Now follow me your majesty.

The two men stepped out of the castle and went straight into the poorest part of the village. As they kept walking the houses became smaller and grimmer, until they finally reached a group of shacks; there, in the last one, the dim light of a candle could be seen through the window.

As they peeked through, the King recognized the face of the man sitting on a rudimentary stool: it was the humming servant.

— Your majesty, it’s a good idea if you go and hide behind those bushes, and I will join you shortly.

The King did as he was told, from there he could see the shack’s door. The old counselor took the little leather pouch and place it right in front of the door in such a way that it was impossible to miss it. He then knocked on the door as hard as he could, and he threw himself behind the bushes were the King was already waiting.

The door opened and the servant emerged with the candle in one hand; he looked left and then right, but there was no one there, and just before he closed the door again, he noticed something lying on the floor: a leather pouch. He bent slowly and grabbed the pouch with his free hand.

As he pulled the cord with the fingers, the sack opened and his content was revealed: gold, pieces and pieces of sparkling gold. With his eyes popping out of their sockets, he grabbed the bag and pressed it against his chest as hard as he could, and while the door was closing, he looked around one last time, to ensure that nobody was watching. Once inside, he quickly took some rags to cover the window.

«And what now? » asked the King.

— Patience your majesty, let us slowly approach the window again.

The rags on the window had enough holes to allow a peek inside of the shack. The scene spoke for itself: one very agitated servant was whispering to his wife about what had just happened. When the woman saw the content of the sack, she covered her mouth to avoid screaming and tears of joy began rolling down her cheeks.

With one arm, the servant swept everything off the table except for the candle. He then proceeded to pour down and start counting all the gold coins.

- one, two, three… ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine… NINETY-NINE?!

He started to look around the table with anxiety; maybe he made a mistake while counting, so he started all over again… and again for the third time but still, the number remained the same.

- Maybe I dropped a piece when I pour them down on the table!

With the help of his wife, they searched in every single corner of the shack, under every stool, behind the furnace and even under the bed… it was useless, they fact was that they only had ninety-nine pieces of gold.

- This is outrageous! Who puts only ninety-nine pieces in a bag?!

He put all the gold pieces back in the pouch, took a pencil and a piece of paper and began his calculations… it would take him twenty-four months for him to earn a single piece of gold with his current salary.

- Two years?! That is too long! I cannot wait for two years to earn the missing piece of gold!… wait! there might be something we can do!

Once again, he took pencil and paper and with the help of his wife, they came up with a plan to reduce their expenses to the bare minimum — which was already a challenge in itself — he would request for additional hours at the castle or elsewhere for that matter, and his wife could start cooking for the neighbors or washing their clothes… no sacrifice was too big in order to get that “missing” piece of gold.

But even with all these adjustments, the time it would take them was still of twelve months.

- Still one year?! You know what, it doesn’t matter, we will go ahead with this plan and once we have that gold coin, we will buy a huge farm full of servants to enjoy the rest of our life!