The power of faith in the Almighty is such that it turns the bad virtues into good ones. The only thing required is the grit belief in the Almighty that he is the one who destines our life. An interesting anecdote from the life of Sant Goswami Tulasidas proves the same wherein a robber turned into a devotee of Shri Ram convinced by the faith of the noble saint.
Goswami Tulasidas, the composer of Shri Ramcharitramanas had a daily habit of reciting the same to various devotees who visited his ashram. The evenings were filled with the chants of devotion for Shri Ram and filled with bliss and happiness. There were no restrictions in the Ashram and everybody was free to come and go whenever they liked.
A thief notices the crowd flowing to Shri Tulasidas’s ashram. He believes that the entire crowd would give the saint some valuables and he could easily steal it as the saint was not mighty enough to tackle him. Planning to execute his idea, he visits the Ashram in the disguise of a commoner. He sits with the crowd and starts listening to Ramayan. The thief gets so enchanted by the narration of Shri Tulasidas that he forgets the real task he had come for. However, when the story for the day was over, the thief comes back to his senses and resumes his plan.
The thief finds Shri Tulasidas alone and engrossed in writing after the crowd leaves. Immediately, the thief starts searching for valuables in the whole Ashram, but finds none. Listening to the sounds, Tulasidas asks who it is. Startled, the thief lies that he was still there here to safeguard the ashram. Shri Tulasidas, smiles and answers that the ashram was already in safe hands and he needn’t worry about that. Initially, the thief does not understand his words and gets back to his work. But he finds no valuables in the Ashram. Dejected, he decides to leave. But when he approaches the main door, he is surprised when he sees a young prince with a bow and arrow guarding the main door. Afraid, the thief tries to go from the back door and is shocked to see another prince guarding the back door. The thief tries to leave the Ashram in all ways possible, but wherever he goes, he finds the two young princes. The thief then understands why Shri Tulasidas had said that the ashram was already safe as he now saw the warriors guarding the ashram. He falls at the feet of Shri Tulasidas and reveals his identity and asks him to save him from the young warriors.
Tulasidas smiles and says that the two young princes were none other than Shri Ram and Lakshman who were guarding the ashram. The thief realises that it was the pure devotion of Shri Tulasidas for which the Almighty himself was his guardian. Tulasidas Ji mentions that all the thief’s sins were absolved having seen Shri Ram and Lakshman and asks him to start a pious life. The thief bows with great respect to the devotion of Shri Tulasidas, and becomes a disciple of the noble saint. Thus, is faith of Shri Ram and the devotion of Shri Tulasidas that it transformed a thief into a noble one proving that nothing is impossible when one has faith.