A wise man was riding a horse. A snake was crawling into the mouth of a person sleeping by the roadside. A horseman ran to scare the snake away and save the person, but he couldn't reach him in time. The snake slithered into the sleeping person's mouth.
The horseman approached the sleeping man and struck him several times with his whip. The sleeping man suddenly jumped up and ran towards a tree, landing on his back. Beneath that tree, there were many rotten apples. The horseman ordered the man to eat the rotten apples. The man responded:
“Sir, what have I done to you? Why are you treating me this way? First, you hit me with your whip, and then you tell me to eat rotten apples. Even an enemy wouldn’t do this!”
Bear with the fool, but do not speak. The man with the snake in his mouth was eating the rotten apples with one side and cursing the horseman with the other. After eating some of the rotten apples, he began to get whipped again. The poor man tried to escape to avoid another beating, but the horseman was chasing him. At one point, feeling nauseous, he vomited the rotten apples along with the snake. Seeing the snake, the man fell at the feet of the horseman:
“You are a good person. I am fortunate to have met you. You must have made me eat the rotten apples and vomit to get the snake out. If I had understood this situation, I wouldn’t have said such terrible things to you. Please forgive me!”
The horseman replied:
“If I had told you that there was a snake in your mouth, you would have been terrified. You might have even died of fear. If you had known there was a snake inside you, you wouldn’t have been able to eat or run.” While you were cursing me, I quietly prayed, ‘O my Creator, make my task easier,’” he said.
