Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya was made khalif by his Pir, Baba Farid, at the very young age of 23, but that did not mean that he was free from all tests and trials. In the early days of his spiritual work, Nizamuddin had only two mureeds, and the three of them lived in great poverty, sometimes forced to fast for several days in a row.

There was a saintly woman living nearby, who spun thread to earn her living, and with what she earned, she bought flour with which she baked bread at sunset. Once, when Hazrat Nizamuddin and his students had been fasting for four days, she sent a little of this flour to them. Nizamuddin asked one of the mureeds to mix it with water and boil it so they could share it between them.

While the pot was still on the fire, though, a dervish suddenly appeared and shouted at them, “If you have anything to eat, do not withhold it from me!”

Hazrat Nizamuddin begged the dervish to wait a little, as the flour was not yet cooked, but the dervish was impatient. Therefore the shaikh got up and brought the pot to the dervish.

To their astonishment, the dervish lifted the pot high with both hands and smashed it on the ground, saying as he did so, “Shaikh Farid has bestowed his spiritual blessings on Shaikh Nizamuddin. I break the vessel of his material poverty!”

And from that day the circle of mureeds around Shaikh Nizamuddin began to grow, and enormous, unsolicited gifts began to pour in.