The Man Who Dreamed of a Hidden Treasure
A Story by Maulana Rumi
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Once, there was a man who received a lot of wealth in inheritance. He did not know the true value of this wealth because he got this wealth easily without any hardship and struggle. Thus, he wasted all his wealth and became poor. Everything was gone, the money, the houses, the furniture; and he was left alone.
And when he was left with nothing, he remembered God and turned to Him: “O Lord! You gave me wealth and the wealth is gone. You gave me houses and houses are gone. So I ask refuge from You. And I ask You to give me wealth”. And he returned to God and called upon Him. As the Prophet said, “Believer is like a flute. It produces music when it is empty”. O listener! Keep yourself empty and remain joyful in the company of the two fingers. Tears dropped from his eyes and he — the seeker of wealth — asked for wealth without asking for struggle.
When he became humble, the doors of mercy opened upon him. Is there anyone who knocks on His door and is not answered? So the humble man saw a dream. In his dream, he heard a voice from the Heaven saying to him, “ Your desire will be fulfilled in Egypt. Go there as your prayer will be accepted there. There is a treasure buried in such-a-such spot in Egypt. You should go there in search of it without any delay”
So he traveled all the way from Baghdad to Egypt. And when he reached there, the sight of Egypt raised his hopes. He remembered the precious treasure that is buried at the specific spot.
But after this long journey, he had no single penny left in his pocket, not for expenses, not even for bread. He thought about begging from people but shame and honor refrained him. His “self” swerved with hunger. He had no other way but to beg. He thought about begging in the darkness of night so that he doesn’t feel ashamed. He thought I will bawl in the night so that someone drops a penny from the roof. Thinking this, he wandered in the streets. Sometimes shame and honor froze his feet and sometimes hunger made him walk. One step forward, one step backward; Should I beg or should I sleep with the dry lips? One-third of the night passed in thinking the same.
And suddenly, the night-patrol seized him and started beating him mercilessly with his night-stick. As it occurred, the people had suffered much from the night-thieves those days. Such that the king had ordered police to cut the hand of he who strolls in the night, even if he is king’s relative. So the police were much under the pressure of the king. The night-patrol beat the person countless strokes on his head and his back. The beggar cried for mercy, “Don’t strike so that I may tell you the truth”. The night-patrol stopped and said to him, “Okay, I give you a chance. You don’t belong here and you are a foreigner so tell me what are your intentions? The officials scold the police for the abundance of thieves. Now tell me where are your partners; otherwise, you will be revenged for the doings of them all.”
He said to the night-patrol, “I am not a thief nor a criminal, I am a stranger in Egypt and I belong to Baghdad”. And then he narrated the whole story about his dream of the treasure buried in Egypt. The night-patrol smelled truth in his story and it melted his heart. It is because the heart is comforted by true words just as a thirsty man is comforted by water. The eyes of the night-patrol dropped tears; not because of dry speech but due to the fragrance of a true heart.
The night-patrol said to him, “You are neither a thief nor a criminal. You are a good man but a very foolish person as you traveled this long distance just because of a dream. There isn’t the least spark of light in your intelligence. You traveled this long distance only because of your foolishness and greed. I have seen a dream multiple times that: ‘A treasure is buried in Baghdad, in such-a-such house on such-a-such street. Go there and search for it.’ ” The night-patrol told the name of the same person and it was the same house and the street where he lived. “I have seen this multiple times in dream that there is a treasure buried at a specific place in Baghdad but I never left my home on account of this. And you have traveled this long distance just after a dream without any hesitation?”
No doubt, the dream of the foolish is according to his intelligence — it is worthless just like him. The person who dreamed said to himself, “The treasure is in my own house. Then why complain about that place? I — sitting over the treasure — am dead with beggary because I am heedless and blind.” He became intoxicated by this good news. His pain was no more. He praised Allah, a thousand times. “My delicious food depended upon the taste of this hardship. Walk! As I have tasted a wonderful food today. I was blind with the delusion that I am poor. No matter you call me foolish or intelligent, I have found what my heart searched for. O, Respected Sir! You can call me a patient. I may be a patient to you but I consider myself to be healthy. It would have been much sorrowful if the case was reverse. If I was a flower to you but I considered myself a thorn. Haven’t you heard of the dervish when a base said to him, ‘No-one knows you here’ and the dervish replied, ‘It doesn’t matter if no-one knows me. At least I know myself, who I am’ ”.
Bowing and prostrating in front of God, the person returned from Egypt to Baghdad. All the way, he was wonder-struck on the signs and omens of Allah Almighty, how they are manifested in a way which no mind can perceive. He was bewildered on how his wealth and his path of seeking were just the opposite. He was saying to himself, “Of where did He make hopeful, and from where did He shower wealth! What wisdom was this that He caused me to go forth from home and take the wrong path? I even hastened on the wrong path so that every moment, I was moving away from what I sought. And then he made the same wrong path an instrument of my guidance to the right path.”
He turns a stray path into the road of faith and makes the road of righteousness lead to stray paths. So that no righteous man is without fear and no traitor is without hope. He has hidden the antidote inside the poison so that they may say Him, “The Lord of Hidden Grace”.
The person returned to his home and discovered the treasure. By the Grace of God, his prayer was accepted. So that you may observe the wisdom of “The One” who’s wise of all.
A Little about this Story
Does this story sound familiar? It’s because you might’ve read it in literature. The main plot of this story is an Arabic folktale which is also a part of “One Thousand and One Nights”. And it is the oldest trace of this story in written form. But there, the plot is described as a very short story that lacks any details or explanations of the meanings but Maulana Rumi has described the story with more details and much more explanation of the meaning. Above all, Maulana Rumi has derived some deep spiritual meanings from the story which otherwise someone could never understand. However, the most popular version of this story is Paulo Coelho’s bestseller “The Alchemist”. Paulo Coelho — who is Brazilian — had first read the version of this story which was written by Jorge Luis Borges, an Argentine story-writer (Source: The New Yorker).
Anyway, the story that I’ve written here is taken from Volume 6 of “Masnavi” by the great Persian poet Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi. Masnavi is a book of poems so this story was written poetically. His writing style is such that he often starts explaining a point mid-way in the story and then after a while returns back to the story. Here, I’ve contained myself just to the main story and have described it in prose. I’ve taken help of the Urdu translation of Masnavi to understand the spiritual meanings and have taken help of the English translation by R.A Nicholson (p260) to adopt it better in the English language. I decided to re-write this story in English in prose form so that Maulana Rumi’s version of the story is presented in a separate form in prose. However, my knowledge (of both literature and spirituality) is very limited. I could not truly convey the whole message of the story here and I apologize for that. Therefore, I would highly encourage you to read the original translation of the same.
Thank you for giving it a read!
