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will know what happiness is.' A simple remedy: find the shirt of a happy man and wear it.
The king was very happy listening to this, he said 'So simple?' He told his chief minister 'Go and find a happy man and bring his shirt as immediately as possible.'
The minister went. He went to the richest man and asked for his shirt, but he said 'You can take as many shirts as you like, but I am not a happy man. Shirts you can have, as many as you want, but I am unhappy myself, and I too will send my servants to look for a happy man and his shirt. Thank you for your remedy.'
And he visited so many people, but nobody was happy. They were all ready, they said 'We can give our lives if the king can become happy. What of shirts? We can give our whole lives, but we are not happy -- our shirts won't do.'
Then the minister was very miserable. What to do? Now he would be at fault -- the physician had played a game, so he was very much worried. Then somebody said 'Don't be so worried, I know a happy man. And you must have heard him somewhere, sometimes -- he plays on his flute in the night, just by the side of the river. You must have heard.'
He said 'Yes, sometimes in the middle of the night, I was enchanted -- such beautiful notes. Who is this man? Where is he?'
The man said 'In the night we will go and find him. He always comes, every night.'
So they went in the night and the man was playing on his flute and it was tremendously beautiful. And the notes were so blissful that the minister was happy. He said 'Now I have found the man!'
When they reached there, the man stopped playing. He said 'What do you want?'
The minister said 'Are you happy?'
He said 'I am happy, I am happiness. What do you want?'
The minister danced with happiness. He said 'Now. you just give your shirt!' -- and the man remained silent. And the minister said 'Why are you silent? Give your shirt! The king needs it.'
The man said 'That's impossible, because I don't have any shirt. You can't see because it is dark, but I am sitting naked. I would have given my shirt -- I can give my life, but I don't have any shirt.'
'Then
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