King Anantdev of Lalit Nagari was once having dinner in his palace. Suddenly a little vegetable from the hand of the servant serving food spilled on the clothes of King Anantdev. King Anantdev frowned. When the servant saw this, he got a little scared, but after thinking something, he poured all the remaining vegetables in the cup on King Anantdev’s clothes. Now there was no limit to the anger of King Anantdev.
Anantdev asked the servant, how did you dare to do this? The servant replied very calmly, Maharaj! Earlier, after seeing your anger, I had understood that now my life will not be saved, but then I thought that people will say that King Anantdev has given death sentence to an innocent person for a small mistake. In such a situation you would have been defamed. Then I thought that I should throw away all the vegetables so that the world does not defame you and consider me a criminal.
King Anantdev saw a serious message in his reply that if a servant can forgive a king, then can’t I, being a king, forgive a servant. The one who forgives is always greater than the one who commits a mistake. Thinking this, the king felt embarrassed and forgave the servant.-Surendra Agnihotri
