The Parable of the Magic Powder
There was a village full of bandits and thieves, their wives and children, and grandparents. The thieves laughed and stole and fought and sometimes killed one another. Men feared one another and lived on their guard. It was a very human village.
One day a traveling peddler and his family came to the village from a distant land. The peddler had a secret formula that could be used to turn certain ground-up minerals and other ingredients into an amazing explosive powder. A small vial of this powder the size of a man’s thumb could blow up an entire house and everything in it. Even the largest house of the richest thief would have been flattened several times over by just a small amount of this magic powder.
The powder was powerful but temperamental. The slightest bump or shake could set it off. It was, in truth, a very dangerous powder.
The peddler, sitting on the ground with the richest bandit, trying to convince him to buy the secret formula, explained that the danger was what was best about the powder. “Because,” he said, “if you wear a vial of this powder around your neck and anyone attacks you, he will know that when he grapples with you, he will die, too. Even if you are stabbed with a knife from behind, when you fall the explosion will kill your attacker.” Thus said the peddler. “The magic of the powder is in the fear,” he said.
