The Godfather

A poor man, unable to care for his thirteenth child, encounters Death on the road. Death offers to be the godfather, promising to make the child wealthy and respected. The man accepts, believing he cannot refuse the inevitable. Years pass. The godson grows into a skilled physician, blessed with an uncanny gift: Death himself shows him which patients will live and which will die. When Death stands at a patient's head, the youth knows recovery is certain. When Death stands at the feet, death is near. The young physician becomes famous, curing even the dying king and winning the princess's hand. One night, Death appears and reproaches him: the physician has thwarted Death's will too many times. Death shows him a vast cavern filled with candles, each one a human life. The physician's own candle burns low. In desperation, he attempts to turn his candle upright to buy more time, but Death, in anger, extinguishes it entirely. The young man falls dead, having learned too late that wisdom requires accepting what cannot be changed. Circumspection—careful judgment about what can be altered and what must be accepted—proves essential to mortal life.