This incident has been quoted by Shaikh Bahai in his book ‘Kashkol’. We narrate below this incident briefly.
A worshipper was passing his days in a cave on one of the mountains of Lebanon, like the people of ‘Kahf’. He had estranged himself from everyone except Allah, and he considered solitude to be the best treasure of his honour. He fasted during the day, and at night he got a loaf of bread, half of which he
ate at evening during ‘Iftaar’, while the other half during ‘Seher’. And this moderation had made his heart contented. He passed his days in such a state. He was never ready to leave the mountains and go to the town.
It so happened that one night he did not get the bread to eat, and so he became weak and exhausted.He recited the evening Prayers with difficulty for his mind was eager for food. Because of hunger he could neither pray nor sleep. When it was dawn, the worshipper left the mountain and went to a nearby town whose inhabitants were fire-worshippers and searched for food. He knocked at the door of a fire-worshipper and he gave him two pieces of bread. He thanked him and left for the mountain. At the house of the fire-worshipper there was a dog whose bones and veins were visible due to starvation. The dog seemed quite hungry. When the dog saw the worshipper going with the bread, it ran after him and caught hold of his shirt. The worshipper was scared, and in order to save himself from the dog’s bite, threw a piece of bread at it. The dog ate the bread and again pursued him. The worshipper was all the more scared and threw the second piece towards it. After gulping down the bread, the dog again chased him. It started barking and tore his clothes.
When the worshipper saw this, he turned towards the dog and said, “I have never seen a more ungrateful creature than you. Your master gave me two breads only, which you, wretched soul, snatched away from me. Why do you now run after me tearing my clothes.”
The dog replied, “O pious man! I am not ungrateful nor shameless, it is you who are so. Since my childhood I have been living with this fire-worshipper, and look after his cattle. Sometimes he gives me bread, while sometimes a handful of bones. Sometimes he forgets to feed me and I starve due to hunger. It also happens that many days pass without my getting anything to eat. And many times this man himself does not have anything to eat. I do not go to any other door, for I have grown up here and have got refuge. Whenever I am fed, I offer thanks, and when I have to remain hungry, I bear patiently (and do not grumble at my master). This is my habit.
As for you, when you did not get food for one night, the foundation of your patience crumbled. You left the door of the ‘True Sustainer’, and came begging to the door of His enemy. You left your Lord for the sake of a morsel of food. O wise man! Now you judge as to who is ungrateful and shameless, yourself or me?”
When the worshipper heard these words, he deplored himself and repented.