The Pot of Oil

A young prince wanted to learn how to concentrate.

His father, the King, took him to a great Guru.

The Guru agreed to teach the prince on one condition. He challenged the young prince to walk through the palace with a pot of oil balanced on his head without spilling a drop.

The young prince thought that this was an easy task.

The next day, he filled a pot of oil and balanced it on his head. He entered the palace through the main gate. Everybody who saw him made fun of him. His little brother and sister teased him. But the prince carried on without paying any attention to them.

He passed the dancing chamber, the kitchen, the gardens, and although he was tempted, he resisted the urge to dance, to eat and to play.

In one of the rooms of the palace, a merchant from Arabia was showing the noblemen a special lantern. He told them to bend under the lantern to see the patterns of coloured light that formed at its base.

The prince heard this and wanted to see the patterns too. He had never seen an Arabian lantern before. So he silently entered the room and bent his head a little. 
And poink!... The pot of oil tilted and the oil spilled on the noble robes of the noblemen.
The next day, when the prince entered the palace with the pot of oil balanced on his head, a visitor from Europe said, "What a chandelier! I have never seen one like this in my life." The prince forgot about the pot of oil and looked up. 
And poink!...all the oil spilled on the European visitor who was standing behind him. 

For several days, whenever the prince balanced the pot of oil on his head, he was distracted by something someone said or something new or unusual. He felt miserable whenever the oil spilled.

One day, the prince decided to be most careful. He ignored all distractions and determinedly walked straight. Soon, he reached the last room of the palace. The King waited for him there and greeted him with clapping hands.

When the Guru heard of the prince’s achievement, he accepted him as a student. 


(Retold)