Born in the lowest strata of society, he begged on the streets in the earliest years of his youth. He joined the military later on, rose through the ranks and finally became the ruler of an entire continent and won the admiration and respect of countless people across the globe.

In his death bed, upon being asked about the despair on his face, he replied: "The imminent death does not bother me. I had grand plans in life, and most of them were great successes. But, an incident far across time still haunts me, a thirst, an unfulfilled desire. None of my biographies talk about it and I have not told anyone."

"I was a nobody, a beggar. At the same, I was a king because I loved a beautiful woman. I loved her more than anything, anybody else. I had no home, no roof above me. I was alone in this universe. I was wandering without any means for food and without hope. One day, in the afternoon, tired after walking for miles in the scorching sunlight, I went to my beloved's house - not for words of love, but for a glass of water. Her response was a bark: "This is not a place for beggars". I said with a heavy heart, " I cannot walk a bit, I just need a glass of water." She drove me away. I could hear her muttering to herself, " What a fucking nuisance, how do people become such good for nothings, these idiots should hang themselves." And then she turned around and said, "Get out."

I could not forget this incident, but somehow she managed to not remember it later. When I became powerful later on, when I had no difficulty getting anything, she came to me with her love. She was ready to give me anything, not just a glass of water. She died as one of the richest women in the country.

But, when I was madly in love with her - my love bordering on devotion, she could not quench my thirst with a glass of water. Nobody could suggest a rememdy for that thirst, something which anybody could have solved with a glass of water."

When he died, one could see the same despair on his face.

When I asked the person who told me this incident about the moral of the story, he just shrugged and said, "Oh nothing, just a memory."