Who Built the Cathedral?

A king built a Cathedral in the middle ages. Many came forward with their contributions. A poor widow had nothing to give. There were a few worn out mats spread on the floor of her cottage. As bullock carts carrying marble for the temple passed by her cottage, she fed the bullocks with strands of straw which she pulled out of her mat and breathed out the prayer:— "Lord, let this be my humble offering towards the building of your Temple".

When the Cathedral was ready, a holy man came to consecrate it. He said to the King: "Last night, I had a dream. In the dream I heard a Voice say: "Tell the people that the great Cathedral has been built not by the king but by the poor widow who dwells by the side of the road leading to the Cathedral."

The king was mystified. How could a poor widow build a huge Cathedral? The widow was called for and asked what her contribution had been.

"Nothing," answered the widow. "All I did was to give bits of straw to the bullocks that carried the marble for the Cathedral". —J.P. Vaswani