Written by Eugene Morgan
A distraught wolf was running through village after village looking to find someone to relieve him from pain. No one in the villages trusted the wolf enough to help him, not until he saw a crane with a long and thin beak. “I’ll pay you any amount if you take the pain away,” said the wolf. “Where’s the pain,” asked the crane. “I’ve a piece of bone stuck between my two back molars that is causing the pain. Please, would you pull out the bone with your long and thin beak,” asked the wolf. “Yes I will, if you paid me first,” requested the crane. “Don’t you know that I could eat you without a second thought,” said the wolf. “After you pull out the bone, I’ll then pay you handsomely.” So the crane placed his beak into the wolf’s mouth and pulled the bone out. “Now pay me what’s owed to me,” insisted the crane. “I still have pain,” frustratingly said the wolf and left the crane without payment.
Since the wolf spared his life, the least the crane could do, is suggest to the wolf that he see the old man about his pain. “The old man possesses the power to heal. He uses a magic lamp to heal and comfort the sick and the dying. He lives over those hills,” said the crane. Later on that day, the old man heard something from behind. Without looking, the old man said, “So you’re in a lot of pain and you want me to heal you with my magic lamp.” “How did you know that it was me approaching you from behind without seeing who it was? And how did you know I was going to ask you to heal me,” curiously asked the wolf. “It’s not important that you know how I know these things. The important thing is to cure you of your pain,” said the old man.
So the old man took out his magic lamp and rubbed it a few times, and started looking intensely at the wolf. “What if a lion had a piece of bone stuck inside his mouth and asked you to pull it out, how much pain would you feel,” asked the old man. The wolf said, “I wouldn’t feel any pain as I don’t right now.” The magic lamp has healed me, rejoiced the wolf. The old man threw the magic lamp behind him and then walked away. The wolf asked the old man why did he throw away something that could heal. The old man said, “It wasn’t the lamp that relieved you from pain. The lamp doesn’t possess the power to heal. Rubbing the lamp didn’t relieved you from the pain, it was what you did with the idea that relieved you from the pain,” explained the old man.