Once upon a time there was a king and he was a wise man too. In his kingdom used to live many other wise men. Now some of these would not agree to believe that God did exist, while others not only agreed but argued to the satisfaction of the King that there was 'God'. The King, being a wise man, arranged for a discussion.

The date and time for discussion was fixed. The king held his court at the appointed time on the appointed date. The non-believers assembled in his presence but the believing wise man did not come at the appointed time

The people waited and waited till they lost their patience and uttered the words: "He has no arguments to advance in support of his conviction, so he will not come. He has lost, we have won."



At last, the wise man arrived and there was an uproar in the court of the king. The people cried: "Why are you late? You have lost".

The king asked him to explain the cause of his delay. The believing wise man explained, saying: "I started from my home in time, but when I came by the side of the river which I had to cross before reaching here, I did not find a single boat, by which I could cross and reach the opposite bank".

Upto this point the disbelieving men heard him patiently and did not say a single word. The believing man then continued:

"I waited and waited till at last I saw some planks of wood coming out of the river".

And the unbelieving men began to shout "O, It is a lie. It is unbelievable. It is unthinkable".

Continued the believing wise man: "Plank by plank came out of the river and then I saw the planks were cut to proper size and shape and joined to each other with nails by themselves until they formed a boat. And then I took my seat in it and came over to the other bank. I am late because of the delay in the availability of the boat".

Amid a roar of the non-believing men, the believing wise man tried to convince them of the cause of the delay; but the opponents would not believe him. Then he said:

"You do not believe what I say. It appears the story of the boat forming by itself is something impossible for you to believe. Now in the name of justice, I ask you. Do you see the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars and the skies? Every thing is set according to a plan. But you say it came into existence without a Creator. In other words you deny the existence of God. How far is your statement reasonable and justified?

This silenced them all and there was no answer to this. So the non-believers lost and the believer won.