Once there lived in the ancient city of Afkar two learned 
men who hated and belittled each other’s learning. For one 
of them denied the existence of the gods and the other was a 
believer.
     One day the two met in the marketplace, and amidst their 
followers they began to dispute and to argue about the existence 
or the non-existence of the gods. And after hours of contention 
they parted.
     That evening the unbeliever went to the temple and pros-
trated himself before the altar and prayed the gods to forgive his 
wayward past.
     And the same hour the other learned man, he who had upheld 
the gods, burned his sacred books. For he had become an 
unbeliever.