The Princess and the Pauper...by Mikhayah ben David

בשם יהוה הרחמן הרחם/بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

There once was a King. The King had a beautiful daughter whose beauty filled the entirety of the Kingdom. It came to pass that a pauper desired to marry the daughter because - being a young woman wishing to go about through the Kingdom - she had posed as a common woman and the two had fallen in love.

This posed no problem for the daughter, who did not cling to notions of status or wealth, but understood that no matter how great a man was, he was nothing in comparison to the King. For this reason she paid no mind to the poverty of the man who loved her.

While this was no problem for her, it was a problem for the pauper. To marry her the man must ask permission of the King and this was naturally very intimidating for anyone, let alone for a man of his status. This pauper was a simple man; so simple that he had never before even tasted meat. While this was initially because of his poverty, he had thus not grown callous to the killing of animals in the butcher shops and markets. As such he came to be glad that he had never eaten meat, consciously deciding to be a vegetarian.

A banquet was thrown for the visit of this man to the King. However, he was ashamed to speak up to this fact that he had decided to be vegetarian when he was offered meat. Instead he accepted it and ate it. This enraged the King who had been briefed on the young man by his daughter. He knew the man was a vegetarian and had here compromised his beliefs for the sake of what he believed would be a way of obtaining his desire

But the King was sympathetic to vegetarianism, surprising enough to both the man and to the people of the Kingdom (many who imagined the King as a mighty hunter!).

"Truth be told, i am primarily vegetarian. I do eat meat but only the flesh of the animal or man who makes the mistake of trying to attack me. If you compromise your belief out of fear then how can you expect to be worthy of my daughter? If killing is wrong when you are on the outskirts of the kingdom, then why does it become right in your mind if it is to bring you nearer to the kingdom?

"If you had only known that it was because you were a vegetarian that i respected you, in spite of your lowly status; respected you enough to grant you audience with me and to consider your request to marry my daughter. If you had only known that i love animals myself and that i had desired for my daughter to marry only the most compassionate man in the Kingdom... If you had only known this then you would not have taken this meat - which is in fact artificial meat, mock meat, an illusion - but you had to believe the illusion so that i could judge your character.

"As for me, i only kill those who aggress but you have killed for vainglory and imagined gain and thus all that you have desired will be deprived of you. I will save my daughter for a suitable man."