The following is a traditional story from India, about which Hazrat Inayat Khan commented that “it is a way of teaching love and respect even for the smallest creatures.”

There was once a very poor man who went to consult an astrologer, and received some shocking news. “Your stars are in a serious condition,” the astrologer said. “The heavens say that you will die in two days’ time, unless you feed the whole village. That is the only escape from this destiny.”

This was a terrible message for the poor man, who could barely manage to feed himself. Deeply depressed, he thought and thought, trying to find some way of feeding all the people in the village where he lived, but the more he thought, the more impossible it seemed.

Soon it was the evening of the second day. Filled with dread, he wandered into the forest, and sat down beneath a tree to consume what he believed would be his last meal – no more than half a dry chapati and a few other scraps. When he had eaten, he got up, brushed the crumbs from his clothing over a nearby ants’ nest, and went to find a place to sleep.

To his surprise, at sunrise the next morning he found himself alive. Hungry, yes, but alive. Confused, he went to the astrologer, who was also surprised to see him still walking around. “What did you do?” the astrologer asked.

“Nothing, I did nothing,” the man said.

“It cannot be nothing,” the astrologer insisted. “The horoscope was very clear. Tell me all that you did.” And when he heard the detail about the last meal, and the crumbs brushed onto the ants’ nest, he said, “That is it! With those crumbs you were able to feed a whole village -– the village of the ants!”