I would like to tell an Indian folk story and the question which Indian elders use to educate the youngsters.
As usual, the grandfather convened the youngsters and began to narrate the story as follow.
There was a city in which a king and his retinue lived. The palace was guarded by a soldier named Birbar. He has his wife, one daughter and one son to take care. Every night he used to take his sword and shield and go and mount guard over the king’s couch; and when the king roused from sleep, used to call out, “Is anyone in waiting?” then he used to answer, “Birbar is in attendance; what may be your commands?” Thus answered he whenever the king called out, and thereupon, whatever the king ordered to be done, he executed. To perform the duties of a servant is more difficult than to perform religious duties (so serving is the part of the life of believers.)
One day the weeping sound of a woman chanced to come at night-time from the burning- ground. On hearing it the king called out, “Is anyone in waiting?”
Birbar instantly answered “I am here; your commands.”
Thereupon the king gave him this order, “Go to the spot whence the weeping voice of a woman proceeds, and enquire of her the cause of her weeping, and return quickly.”
On receiving this order, Birbar took the direction whence the sound of the weeping proceeded; and the king also, after dressing himself in black, followed him secretly for the purpose of observing his courage.
Birbar arrived there. What he beholds in the burning-ground but a beautiful woman, lavishly decked with jewels from head to foot, crying aloud and bitterly!
Seeing her condition, Birbar asked, “Why art thou crying and beating thyself so violently? Who art thou and what trouble befallen thee?”
On this she replied, “ I am royal glory.”
Birbar asked, “Why art thou weeping?”
She replied, “Impious acts are committed in the king’s house, whence misfortune will find admission therein, and I shall depart thence; after the lapse of a month the king will suffer much affliction and die; this is the sorrow which makes me weep. Further, I have enjoyed great happiness in his house, and hence this regret; and this matter will in nowise prove false.”
Birbar then asked, “Is there any remedy for it, whereby king may escape, and live a hundred years?”
She replied, “If you will sacrifice your son with your own hand and offer it to the God, then the king will reign a hundred years precisely as he now reigns, and no harm of any kind will befall him.”
As soon as he had heard these words, Birbar went home, and the king also followed him. Birbar awoke his wife and related the whole story to her.
On hearing the circumstances, she roused the son but the daughter also awoke. Then that woman said to her son, “Son by sacrificing your life, king’s life will be saved, and the government, too, will endure.”
When the boy heard this, he said, “Mother! In the first place, it is your command; in the second, it is for my lord’s service; thirdly, if this body can be of use to God, nothing in the world is better than this for me; it is not right to delay any longer now in this business. There is a saying, if one have a son, to have him under control, - a body, free from diseases, - a prudent friend – a submissive wife – if these five things are obtainable by man, they are the bestowers of happiness and the averters of troubles: if a servant be unwilling, a king parsimonious, a friend insincere, and a wife disobedient, these four things are the banishers of peace and the promoters of misery.”
Birbar again addressed his wife to know that whether she is willing to give up the child.
She replied, “I have no concern with son, daughter, brother, kinsfolk, mother, father, or anyone, it is from you that my happiness proceeds and a woman is purified not only by offerings and religious offices but her religion consists in serving and honoring her husband, no matter whether he be lame, maimed, dumb, deaf, blind, a leper, hunch-backed,- of whatever kind he be; if she perform any description of virtuous action in the world, while she does not obey her husband, she will fall in hell.”
His son said, “Father! The man by whom his master’s business is accomplished – his continuing in the world is attended with advantage; in this, there is the advantage in both worlds.”
The four deliberating with one another somewhat in the above fashion went to sacrifice the boy. The king also secretly followed them.
When Birbar arrived the spot, paid his adoration to God, and joined his hands in supplication, and said, “O God! Grant by the sacrificing of my son, the king may live a hundred years.”
Saying this he struck such a blow with the sword that his son’s head fell upon the ground.
On witnessing her brother’s death, the daughter struck a blow with the sword on her own neck, so that her head and body fell asunder.
Seeing her son and daughter dead, Birbar’s wife struck such a blow with the sword on her own neck that her head was severed from her body.
Further, seeing the death of the three, Birbar, reflecting in his mind, began to say, “When my son is dead, for whose sake I shall continue in service? And to whom shall I give my salary, perks and other incentives king grants?”
Having reflected thus, he struck such a blow with the sword on his own neck that his head severed from his body.
Beholding the death of these four, the king said himself, “For my sake, the lives of his family perished: accursed is it any longer to govern a realm for which the whole family of one is destroyed, while one holds sovereignty; it is no virtue thus to reign.”
Having deliberated thus, the king was on the point of killing himself with the sword; in the meantime; however, God came and seized his hand, and said, “Son! I am well pleased with thy courage, and will grant thee whatever boon thou mayest ask of me.”
The king said, “God! If thou art pleased, restore all these four to live.”
God replied, “That shall take place.” And all four restored to life. After that, the king bestowed half of his kingdom on Birbar.
Having narrated the story, the grandpa said, “Blessed is the servant who did not grudge his life, and that of his family, for his master’s sake! And happy is the king who showed no eagerness to cling to his dominion and his life. Children I ask you this, - whose virtue, of those five, was the most excellent?”
The children looked each other.
Grandpa himself answered, “The king’s virtue. It behooves the servant to lay down his life for his master, for this is his duty; but since the king gave up his throne for the sake of his servant, and valued not his life as a straw, the king’s merit was the superior.”
In the Bible, there is a verse, Roman 5:6, for while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Such an example you can see nowhere else.