A ship captain wanted everything on his ship to be perfect. When the men under his direction made mistakes, he became furious. Some of the time, he would be so angry with them that he would leave them at the next port and go on the voyage without them.
This happened again and again until the men of the ship hated the captain. They gladly welcomed the chance to be left at the next port. Soon the captain had a very bad reputation and very few sailors wanted to work for him no matter how much he paid them.
On this particular voyage there were only five mates aboard the ship and the captain had to do much of the work himself.
It wasn’t long before the captain himself made a mistake. He was dumbfounded. He had always done everything perfectly. He had never made a mistake before.
The crew, however, did not get angry with the captain. They fixed the mistake and never said a word of it. These particular men were so hard-working and focused that they did not loathe the captain at all for his mistake and the many mistakes that he made throughout the voyage.
The captain saw how these men treated him and something changed within him. He had much more patience with the men and he and the crew worked together to reach their final destination: an island very few people had visited.
It was here that they found a buried treasure that they searched for years to find.
Instead of giving the men a small part of the booty, he split it all evenly with them in six parts making each one of them very, very rich.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5)
To read and share more fables inspired by the Beatitudes, download a free eBook edition of Beatitales: Volume I.
