Once upon a time there lived in a country a do-gooder. The king was very appreciative of his deeds and decided to honour him as a saint by a decree. On the saint's eightieth birthday, the king was invited to his birthday celerbration. He brought with him a painter so as to do a picture of the kindly saint as a paragon for his countrymen.

When the feast is over all the guests were asked to have a look at the picture. To their great surprise, when the picture was shown, what they saw was not a kind but a ruthless and cruel look. The king was very angry at seeing this and ordered his men to beat the painter.

Upon hearing the noise, the saint rushed to the scene to have a look at the picture. After viewing it, the saint knelt down and said, "your majesty, the person in the picture is none other than me." Why?" said the king, dumbfounded. "This has been the very person whom I have never wanted to be."

In this world, there are no naturally born saints; only those who can do self-criticism and sel-examination, can become saints.

參考譯文：

成為圣者的秘訣

從前，在一個(gè)國(guó)家里，有一位做了無(wú)數(shù)善事的善心者。國(guó)王非常欣賞他的善舉，便封他為圣者。

有一天，圣者過(guò)八十大壽，國(guó)王前來(lái)慶賀，特別帶來(lái)一位畫家，想通過(guò)畫家的筆，將這位圣者慈祥的容貌畫下來(lái)，作為世人的典范。

用完晚餐之后，眾多的嘉賓前來(lái)觀賞這幅慈愛(ài)的畫。肖像畫家將這幅畫像拿出來(lái)的時(shí)候，所有人大吃一驚。因?yàn)楫嬂锏娜烁�本沒(méi)有慈善的面貌，反而充滿暴戾，粗野，邪惡的氣息。國(guó)王一看，生氣地要人把畫家拖出去鞭打。

這時(shí)，圣者聽(tīng)到驚呼聲，跑了過(guò)來(lái)，他看到這幅畫后，跪倒在地：“國(guó)王，這畫里的人，才是真實(shí)的我啊�！眹�(guó)王驚詫地問(wèn)：“為什么?”圣者道：“這就是我一生掙扎著，不想去做的那個(gè)人啊�！�

在這世上，沒(méi)有天生的圣者，惟有能時(shí)時(shí)刻刻自我反省，自我檢視的人，才能成為圣者。