The two learned men

Once there lived in the ancient city of Afkar two learned men who hated and belittled each other's learning. For one of them denied the existence of the god and the other was a believer.

One day the two met in the market-place, and amidst their followers they began to dispute and to argue about the existence or the non-existence of god. And after hours of contention they parted.

That evening the unbeliever went to the temple and prostrated himself and prayed to god to forgive his wayward past.

And the same hour the other learned man, he who had upheld god, burned his sacred books. For he had become an unbeliever.

http://leb.net/gibran/