In a land among other lands one day, maybe never, lived a shah. He was a powerful shah – his kingdom was the jewel of the entire region, his friends loved him, his enemies feared him. He was a very rich shah who was like a god (not God, mind you) in his land and had everything and controlled the lives of everyone.
With all of that, he was not a happy shah. While he possessed everything a man could want, he was not fulfilled. There was always something that was missing in his life, something that he felt that if he reached out he would grab and have it. Alas, it was never there. Neither the women nor the conquests satisfied him.
One day, one of his vassal lords brought him a gift, a singing bird. Her songs made the most beautiful sounds the shah ever heard. He ordered his best jewelry masters to make a golden cage for the bird and had it installed in his bedroom right by the balcony so that he could listen to the bird.
This went on for years. Every morning the shah would wake up to the sounds that made his heart sing. This is how he felt the paradise would be like. He could not even imagine his life without hearing the bird.
One morning the shah woke up to silence. The bird was sitting in her diamond encrusted gold cage and not making any sounds. The shah thought it must have been a fluke and did not pay much attention to it. Next morning, the same thing happened, the bird was quiet. The shah panicked, called the best doctors and animal trainers to see what may have happened but none of them had any solutions. For a month, he kept waking up expecting the bird to sing. Alas, no sound. The only thing that made him happy was gone.
The shah started eating less, paid very little attention to the state affairs, and withdrew from all other activities. It got to the point that his enemies became smirking about him in the dark of the night.
His viziers became disturbed and announced throughout the land that whoever gets him out of his rot will be handsomely rewarded. All sorts of philosophers, performers, magicians came trying their luck to make him happy. Not one of them could do that.
One day, a man, a Friend, comes by and offers his help. The servants let him into shah’s quarters where he promptly goes to the cage and opens it. The moment the door of the cage is opened, the bird flies out and away through the balcony. Shah in his rage orders the man to be killed the next day after the noon prayer.
The next morning, the shah awoke to the most beautiful music he has ever heard.