A certain man died and another rent his clothes in grief. Hearing his cries, a sage exclaimed: “If the dead man possessed the power he would tear his shroud by reason of thy wailing and would say: ‘Do not torment thyself on account of my affliction, since a day or two before thee I made ready for the journey. Perhaps thou hast forgotten thine own death, that my decease has made thee so distressed.’” When he whose eyes are open to the truth scatters flowers over the dead, his heart burns not for the dead but for himself. Why dost thou weep over the death of a child? He came pure, and he departed pure. Tie now the feet of the bird of the soul; tarry not till it has borne the rope from thy hand. Long hast thou sat in the place of another; soon will another sit in thy place. Though thou be a hero or a swordsman, thou wilt carry away nothing but the shroud. If the wild ass break its halter and wander into the desert its feet became ensnared in the sand. Thou, too, hast strength till thy feet go into the dust of the grave. Since yesterday has gone and to-morrow has not come, take account of this one moment that now is. In this garden of the world there is not a cypress that has grown which the wind of death has not uprooted. STORY OF A PIOUS MAN AND A GOLD BRICK A gold brick fell into the hands of a pious man and so turned his head that his enlightened mind became gloomy. He passed the whole night in anxious thought, reflecting: “This treasure will suffice me till the end of my life; no longer shall I have to bend my back before any one in begging. A house will I build, the foundation of which shall be of marble; the rafters of the ceiling shall be of aloe-wood. A special room will I have for my friends, and its door shall lead into a garden-house. Servants shall cook my food, and in ease will I nourish my soul. This coarse woollen bed-cloth has killed me by its roughness; now will I go and spread a carpet.” His imaginings made him crazy; the crab had pierced its claws into his brain. He forsook his prayers and devotions, and neither ate nor slept. Unable to rest tranquil in one place, he wandered to a plain, with his head confused with the charms of his vain fancies. An old man was kneading mud upon a grave for the purpose of making bricks. Absorbed in thought for a while, the old man said: “O foolish soul! hearken to my counsel. Why hast thou attached thy mind to that goldbrick when one day they will make bricks from thy dust? The mouth of a covetous man is too widely open that it can be closed again by one morsel. Take, O base man, thy hand from off that brick, for the river of thy avarice cannot be dammed up with a brick. “So negligent hast thou been in the thought of gain and riches that the stock of thy life has become trodden underfoot. The dust of lust has blinded the eyes of thy reason—the simoon of desire has burned the harvest of thy life.”