A farmer’s daughter

 A farmer”s daughter

A farmer”s  daughter was to carry fresh milk to various customers in different places in her Village including a 
priest. To reach his house, the milkmaid had to cross a good-sized
stream. People crossed it by a sort of ferry raft, for a small fee.

One day the priest, who performed worship daily with the offering
to God of fresh milk, finding it arrived very late, scolded the poor
woman. “What can I do?” she said, “I start out early from my house, but
I have to wait a long time for the boatman to come.”


Then the priest said (pretending to be serious), “What! People have
even walked across the ocean by repeating the name of God, and you
can”t cross this little river?” This milkmaid took him very seriously.
From then on she brought the priest”s milk punctually every morning. He
became curious about it and asked her how it was that she was never
late anymore.


“I cross the river repeating the name of the Lord,” she replied,
“just as you told me to do, without waiting for the ferry.” The priest
didn”t believe her, and asked, “Can you show me this, how you cross the
river on foot?” So they went together to the water and the milkmaid
began to walk over it. Looking back, the woman saw that the priest had
started to follow her and was floundering in the water.


“Sir!” she cried, “You are uttering the name of God, yet all the
while you are holding up your clothes from getting wet. That is not
trusting in God!”