One day, the Lover took the Disciple and told him to dig up a patch of waste ground. When the Lover told him to do this the Disciple was very glad for usually the Lover kept to himself all such hard tasks, and therefore he dug zealously and deep and as he dug he turned up many loathsome worms, slimy and obscene. These since his heart had grown more than when first he entered the Garden, he collected carefully together in a sack although he much disliked touching them, and carrying them to the edge of the Garden put them beyond its bounds, for it seemed to him intolerable that any such hideous things should deface the glory of the Garden of the Beloved.
So when the time came for planting the Garden they sowed seed throughout the Garden where they had dug it, and in due season lovely flowers and green herbs sprung up everywhere save only the plot which the Disciple had dug. This remained bare and barren.
When the Disciple saw this he was very sad and going to the Lover asked him saying, “Sir, tell me, I pray you, is it my sins that have rendered the plot which I dug barren and yielding no fruit or beauty to the Beloved?”
The Lover answered, “Tell me carefully all that you did when you dug this plot.”
To which the Disciple replied, “I put my spade deep into the earth for I was glad of hard toil in the service of the Beloved. Then I turned over the earth with my spade and in it were many loathsome worms. These, much as I disliked touching them, I placed in a sack and carried outside the boundary of the Garden. For I desired to move such ugliness from the Garden of the Beloved.”
Then said the Lover, “These creature which seemed to you so loathsome are fellow workers with us in the service of the Beloved, for burrowing in the earth they allow air to get to the roots of the plants and they swallow and digest the earth so that the plants can draw nourishment from it, and without their help no plant can grow. So you see indeed these creatures which seem to us so loathsome are in truth more profitable servants to the Beloved than we are ourselves.”
The Disciple then asked, “How can I repair this great damage which in my ignorance I have done to the Garden?”
The Lover replied, “Go out of the Garden to the place where you put the worms and dig there so that you may find these or other worms which you can bring back to the plot to work for the glory of the Garden of the Beloved.”
The Disciple went out of the Garden though he much disliked leaving it even for so short a time and dug and took up the worms and lifting them very lovingly and with great reverence brought them to the barren plot which thereafter was barren no more.
