The Two Learned Men

Once there lived in the ancient city of Afkar two learned men who

hated and belittled each other's learning. For one of them denied

the existence of the gods and the other was a believer.

One day the two met in the marketplace, and amidst their followers

they began to dispute and to argue about the existence or the

non-existence of the gods. And after hours of contention they

parted.

That evening the unbeliever went to the temple and prostrated himself

before the altar and prayed the gods to forgive his wayward past.

And the same hour the other learned man, he who had upheld the

gods, burned his sacred books. For he had become an unbeliever.