There was a Sufi wandering in the desert, when a thief attacked him.
"Stop!" shouted the Sufi. "I have no money, no baggage, nothing. I have been dead to this world for thirty years. There is no one for you to attack."
The thief laughed. "How can a dead man speak? You are not one with God. You may have thrown aside all your baggage, as Jesus did, but Jesus had kept a single slender needle, and for that reason he could not ascend higher than the fourth heaven."
Then the Sufi understood, and thanks to the thief, he surrendered.
Inspired by: The Conference of the Birds by Farid Ud-Din Attar, translated by S. C. Nott
Notes: This is in section 44: An Ill-Treated Sufi. Attar only indirectly references the story of Jesus and the needle, which is found in other Sufi poets.
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