THERE WAS ONCE A PRINCE with a heart as black as tar. His mind, his every thought, revolved around how he could conquer the countries of the world and how to subdue the various nations of the earth. He would destroy villages with fire and steel, then send his men over to raid the crops of the villagers and take them captives. Wherever his army went, huge flames that reached all the way up to the sky soon followed.

Kingdoms would kneel before the might of his armies. Thinking that nothing could resist him, he also felt it right to continue until the whole world would be his. He had even gathered so much wealth out of looting and pillaging that with it he erected beautiful palaces, churches and Castles. And it was indeed hard to imagine how much pain all this wealth hid.

And so, one day, the mighty Prince marveled at all the wealth and the magnificent castles he had built and thought: "I am powerful indeed, but I can have even more. No force on earth should be considered greater than mine".

He went on further wars with his neighbors, until he had them all down on their knees. Kings would kneel before him and huge statues were erected in his honor throughout his realm. Furthermore, he asked his statue placed in all the churches and chapels, only to find resistance by the Bishop: "My Prince, you are mighty indeed, but nothing compares to the All-Mighty".

"Then the next thing for me is to conquer the Kingdom of God", the Prince thought and asked for a magnificent ship to be built for him and his armies, with which he would fly to the Heavens and challenge God himself. For forty days carpenters, workers and engineers worked full time to get it ready on time. They even placed canons on it, as well as golden cupolas on the doors and golden chairs on which the men would sit. Along with them they also placed all sorts of shiny ornaments and statues so as to make the ship as much of a splendid sight as possible.

When the Prince visited it, he got amazed by its beauty, but wondered how a ship so heavy could possibly fly. The engineers then tied a group of falcons to the ship. After the Prince and his army had boarded, the falcons started waving their wings so as to lift it to the air. In vain, however, as the ship was so heavy, they barely even lifted it half a meter off the ground. 

The Prince then ordered them to take the iron canons down, and put replaced the falcons with strong eagles. The engineers did as they were told, emptying the ship of anything that was too heavy. As soon as they gave the signal to the eagles, however, they barely made it lift off the ground, only to see it fall again. The Prince, however, found it difficult to come to terms withs the idea that all the precious objects and treasures they had put on the ship made it difficult for it to fly. And it was only after many failed attempts that he finally asked the workers to strip the ship of anything unnecessary.

They obeyed him for one more time, but thought that since falcons and eagles had failed, they should instead attach colorful balloons filled with helium to the ship. To make sure he would not fail this again, the Prince took off his shiny armor and only took his sword with him, with which he was certain he would conquer the Kingdom of God. He even asked to be left alone on the ship and ordered his army to disembark. Much to their disbelief, the trick worked: as soon as the workers had tied the last balloon, the empty ship that was now ridden of all the unnecessary items and treasures the Prince had previously loaded on it flew so high that it reached the clouds.

As the ship flew higher and higher, the Prince started staring below and observing. He tried to count his Castles, which looked like tiny and unimportant spots on the canvas as he got higher. Then the Kingdoms he had conquered with his sword looked smaller too, until eventually he started seeing seas and oceans before his eyes.

Realizing how small and irrelevant all these looked from above, he burst into tears. This time, however, there was nobody on board to calm him down. An angel instead appeared before him and said: "There's one more thing you need to throw away in order to conquer the Kingdom of God. Your sword".

In shock, he threw his sword from the ship. As soon as the peasants saw it falling from the sky, they thought the evil Prince had fought with God and had been defeated. So happy were they that they organized huge festivals to celebrate.

As for the Prince? After reaching the Kingdom of God with no armor, no sword, and none of the riches that burdened his life on earth, he thought of staying there forever as a servant and never looked back on his previous life.