The Wanderings of preacher Boutros...How Only Some Things Change...

P. Boutros and a rich nobleman were riding through the dizzying heights and valleys of Carpathia.

"Is it not so that God rewards riches with riches?" said the nobleman to the preacher. "Look at my ravishing riding boots made with the best leather money can buy, and your holed and tattered clogs. Look at my jewelled crown, and the rags you wear wrapped around your head. Look at my silk coat with handcrafted buttons and gold thread, and the patched sack that hangs from your bony shoulders. Here we two are: you with a few measly possessions in your moth-eaten saddlebags, I with spices that will make princes and kings weep with pleasure. And yet, we can ride together through this place, I mounted on an Andalucian stallion, you scrabbling on the path on a silly little donkey..."

At that moment the nobleman's musings were interrupted by the arrival of the of a band of brigands, who yanked him from the saddle, kicked and beat him to the ground and rode off with his cargo and mount.

"How extraordinary it is" mused Boutros, "that my circumstances have not seemed to change, but yours are dramatically altered in the space of a few minutes."