The Old Man and Death

An old man, exhausted from gathering firewood in the forest, struggled home carrying a heavy bundle of sticks on his back, stopping again and again to rest his aching shoulders. In a moment of complete exhaustion and despair, he threw the bundle to the ground and cried out, half in earnest, "Oh, would that Death would come and take me from this miserable labor!"

To his shock, Death appeared instantly before him and asked, quite calmly, "You called for me. What do you need?"

The old man, suddenly very much wanting to keep living after all, thought quickly and stammered, "I — I only needed help lifting this bundle back onto my shoulders. My old back isn't what it used to be." Death, without complaint, helped him hoist the bundle and departed, leaving the old man to walk the rest of the way home, grateful and quietly ashamed of how easily despair had made him wish for something he never truly wanted at all.