The Shortcut

Spiritual Story by Idries Shah

Walking home one wonderful morning, Nasrudin thought that it would be a good idea to take a short cut through the woods. "Why," he asked himself, "should I plod along a dusty road when I could be communing with Nature, listening to the birds and looking at the flowers? This is inded a day of days; a day for fortunate pursuits!" So saying, he launched himself into the greenery. He had not gone very far, however, when he fell into a pit, where he lay reflecting. "It is not such a fortunate day, after all," he meditated; "in fact it is just as well that I took this short cut. If things like this can happen in a beautiful setting like this, what might not have befallen me on that nasty highway?"