Village Shepherd

King Agadir was a good and wise King. Sometimes it seemed he was too wise, for occasionally one of the courtiers or the young princes would challenge him. They seemed to think that being a King was all about riding on a shining white charger and using a sword. They would often show off their fencing skills, especially in front of the prettier princesses.

King Agadir would just laugh. He remembered the times when he had been a young and brash Prince himself. He too had had no idea of the real qualities needed by a King. His father had sent him on a time journey to find out for himself the qualities required to be a King. He tried to tell the young princes something of his story.

" I found a King," said Agadir, " riding on a - "

" - a donkey! Yes, we know," finished the young Princes, groaning. "we've heard it all before! But that wasn't a real King. That was just a man people wanted to be King. Real kings are born. Only princes can be real kings."

"So which one of you will be King?" asked Agadir looking from one to the other. "you can't both be kings. You may be both my sons, but only one of you can be King. Which will it be?"

The boys looked at each other. They were grinning, for they'd heard this conversation before. "Whoever lives the longest!" said the eldest prince cheekily. "May the best swordsman win!"

"Did I ever tell you the end of the story?" asked Agadir. " You see, I thought the same as you, to start with. I laughed at the man on the donkey. But then I went around with him for some years. I discovered he was the kindest, gentlest, most lovely person I had ever met. And he was so brave! I've never met anyone before or since, with such courage."

"Not much courage in riding on a donkey!" sniggered the youngest Prince, with a sideways glance at his brother.

Agadir looked at his son with some distaste. There were times when he wondered whether he inhabited a different world from his sons. "I saw that same young man in remarkable acts of courage," said Agadir. "there was one occasion when he went into the temple, and threw out all the merchants. He overturned all their tables and scattered their wares on the ground. And he drove them out with whips. He called them all thieves, because a temple should be a place of prayer. After that, the religious leaders were out to get him. He knew they were out to get him, but he went on teaching and preaching quite openly."

"What happened?" asked his oldest son, interested in the story despite himself.

"He was eventually arrested," said Agadir. "They picked him up at night in a garden. They rigged a trial. Even then he could have saved himself. He had only to protest his innocence, and the governor would have set him free. But he refused to say a word. Whatever they did to him, he simply stayed silent."

"He must have been stupid!" exclaimed the youngest Prince.

"The really courageous people in this world," explained Agadir, "are fools for love. They love another person so much, that they have a burning desire inside for the person they love. They will do anything for that person. They will even die for them, if necessary. Some parents love their children like that. But that particular man didn't only love his own family, but everybody he met. Rather than sell them down the river, or tell any lies to save his own skin, he chose to die for all those people he loved."

The boys were quiet now, struggling to understand how anyone could be so foolishly brave. Their father added, "that's the mark of a true King. Someone who loves all his people so much that he will go to the stake for them. Now which one of you said you would be King?"

The Princes grinned at him sheepishly, for they weren't bad lads at heart. They ran off to practice fencing with their swords, but somehow it didn't seem quite so important now. And each of them wondered in his heart whether he was really brave enough ever to be king.