There was, once upon a time, a weaver who lived somewhere in India. He was a simple man, who had no hut or shelter, but only a loom under a large tree, and there he worked every day. When he completed a length of cloth, he would take it to the market and offer it for sale, saying to anyone who was interested, “The cost of the thread was so much, I spent so much on incidentals, I wove it in such a time, and the price of this cloth is so much, by the will of God.” The people of the village knew him to be honest and pious, and so they never for a moment thought to question his price, but simply paid him what he asked.

As he had no cottage, every evening the weaver ate his meal under the tree and then lay down there to sleep. One night, though, while he slept, two thieves broke into the home of a rich man that stood nearby. The thieves stole a huge quantity of goods, and carried it in a bundle to the tree where the weaver lay. The thieves wanted to take the property somewhere where they could divide it between them, but it was very heavy. Seeing the weaver there, they woke him up and asked him to help them. They placed the bundle on his head, and then directed him to walk before them, and in this way they set off.

The weaver walked, carrying the bundle, never questioning who the men were nor what he was carrying, only following their directions as they walked behind. But then a policeman appeared before them in the road, and seeing him, the thieves immediately disappeared. The policeman stopped the weaver, examined the bundle, and finding the contents suspicious, took him to the police station.

The next day, the goods in the bundle were determined to be precious valuables belonging to the rich man, and so the weaver was brought before the judge, accused of housebreaking and theft.

The judge looked at the weaver severely and asked him to tell what had happened the night before.

The weaver said, “By the will of God, I ate my meal and then slept. In the middle of the night, by the will of God, two men whom I did not know woke me, and asked me to help them. By the will of God they placed a large bundle on my head and directed me to walk forward, which I did, by the will of God. We continued to walk, by the will of God, until a policeman appeared, and then the two men ran away by the will of God. The policeman, by the will of God, put me in the cell, where I slept well, by the will of God, and now by the will of God I have answered your question.”

Understanding that the weaver was in no way connected with the theft, the judge smiled. “And,” he said, “by the will of God you are free.”