The Traveller and the Robe

On 25 September 1912 in Denver, after telling a visitor that man must take flight from the cage of the body and become pure spirit, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá narrated a story about detachment. Maḥmúd recorded His words:

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> The Persian friends travel mostly on foot. They sleep whenever they get tired. They rest wherever they see a shady tree. Once a person came to an Amír. The Amír wished to present him with a gift and with insistence gave him a robe. Later, when he became tired, he lay down under a tree in the forest with the robe folded under his head.

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But he could not sleep as he repeatedly imagined that a thief was crouching nearby to take away the robe. At last he rose, threw the robe away and said, “As long as this robe is with me, I shall not find rest. To find rest I must give it up.” How long will you desire a robe for your body? Release your body that you may have no need for a robe.

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