The Dream of Water

Once a man, a rich merchant of Bukhara who had given his whole life to the pursuit of wealth
felt a thirst that could never be quenched, no matter how many jars of water he drank and, out of desperation, he went to the well outside of his house and drank it dry but still he was thirsty so he went to a nearby lake that shimmered like silver and, getting down on his belly, he drank the lake until it was drained to the very bottom and yet still a thirst continued to burn in his throat and so, saddling up his fastest horse, he rode to the ocean and, diving in, he drank and drank until the ocean too was completely drained.

But then, as he was lying, dazed, upon the bed of the drained ocean he heard a voice from above him.

“Look”, said the voice, “A man. A man is starving for water. Give him some water from our gourd or he will surely die”.

The dazed man only laughed, “My friend. Have you not seen that I have drunk an entire ocean?”, he said, “What good will a gourd full of water do?”.

But then, suddenly, the man felt water splash upon his face and, waking, he realized that he was lying in the middle of the desert and the water being splashed on him was being poured by a pair of poor camel drivers.

Now he remembered that he had been on his way to Samarkand, travelling through the desert, and must have somehow fainted from sun or exhaustion.

“I must have been delirious”, said the man, “No wonder my thirst could not be quenched. All this time I have been dreaming of drinking water but, in reality, I have been dying of thirst”.

Then the man took a slurp of real water and it was, to him, as sweet as the nectar of the gods.

"He who feeds himself upon illusions remains forever hungry”, he observed, giving the men the precious golden bracelets from his wrists as a reward for saving his life, "So from this day onwards, insha'Allah, I shall only live a life of truth".