A beautiful story i heard in the Satsang yday... :)

Once in a town, there lived a 'fakir' (a saint). He was very poor and stayed in a small kutir (a hut). On new moon's night while the fakir was sleeping in his kutir, a thief entered his house. Hearing the small noise the door made, the fakir realized that there was a thief in the house. The fakir suddenly felt very bad. He thought to himself, 'first time someone has come to my house.. first time a thief has come to my house and there is nothing i can give him.. there is no way i can help this thief.' There was only one old rug with holes in it which he had covered himself into. He suddenly got one idea. Quietly he kept the rug in the middle of the room and hid himself in the dark corner. He thought at least this much i can do for this thief. Now the thief, who was also watching all this, got confused. He saw there was nothing in the room that he could steal. And yet, the fakir had kept the rug in the middle as if offering it to him and standing in a corner. The thief thought if i take this rug and start to run away, probably the fakir will wake the neighbours up and take me to the king! And anyway this old, torn rug is of no use to me! So he decided to leave the place without taking anything from there and turned back to leave. As he reached the door, the fakir quickly came out of the corner and stood at the door stopping the thief. He said, 'As it is people dont come to my place. There is no single person who visits my place; neither the rich nor the poor. First time someone has come, how can let him go empty handed? Let me be of use at least to you.. You will have to take this rug!' The thief tried to argue but the fakir did not budge. He pushed the rug into the thief's hands. As the thief started to go back, the fakir again stopped him and said, 'arrey! you are taking something from me.. i am giving you something, you must say thanks to me!' Hiding his astonishment, the poor thief could just mumble a meak 'thank you' and left the place quickly.

After few days the kingsmen caught this thief and he was brought to the king. There were lots of things found with him, amongst which, one was the fakir's torn rug. The thief started pleading innocent but some of the members in the king's court recognised the rug and told the king so. Since the fakir is supposed to be the truthful one, The king said to the thief, if the fakir says you have not stolen this rug, then i will relieve you. And the fakir was called to the court. When the fakir came, the king asked , 'is this rug yours?' the fakir said, 'yes'. king asked 'has this thief stolen this from you?' the fakir said, 'no! i have given it to him willingly and in fact, he has said thanks to me for that'! Hearing this, the king relieved the thief. The fakir too left the palace and started waling back to his place.

Now relieved and surprised by this act of fakir, the thief went runnig behind him and said, 'now i am not going to leave you! today you have saved a thief'! hearing this, the fakir just smiled and said, 'jabse main fakir bana hoon, mujhe koi chor dikhata hi nahi'! (since the day i became a fakir, i dont see anyone as thief!)

:) :)