Playing card player

Once there was a man who was very fond of playing cards. One day he said to his wife - “One day invite Christ for lunch.”

His wife invited Christ for lunch. Christ said “Okay I will come.” So in the afternoon Christ came to the card player's house to have lunch with all his disciples.

When the card player's wife saw so many people she said - “I do not have so much bread.”

Christ said - “I think I do. Look I have this bread, this is what we will eat today.”

The dining table was laid and they all sat down to eat. Christ blessed the bread and everyone ate. That bread was not only enough but also more than needed.

After eating Christ drank wine and asked the card player what he wanted from Christ. Christ's disciples advised him to ask them for the kingdom of heaven.

But the person playing cards said - "There is an apple tree in my house. Many people come to my house and they pluck apples from that tree and take them away. So I want that whoever plucks an apple from this tree should get stuck to it and should not leave the tree until I release him."

Christ said - "It will be as you wish."

Christ drank the second glass of wine and then asked - "Tell me what do you wish that I should give you?"

Christ's disciples again told him to ask for the kingdom of heaven but he again said - "No, this time I ask you that whenever I play cards, only I should win."

Christ said - "It will be as you wish."

Christ drank the third glass of wine and then asked - "Now what do you wish that I should give you?"

This time he said - "The kingdom of heaven."

Christ said - "It will be as you wish."

Christ left from there after saying this and that man went to play cards. Now what happened was that the man used to win over whoever he played cards with due to the blessing of Christ. After some time Christ was crucified and that man kept on playing cards.

When Christ reached the kingdom of heaven, he sent an angel to bring that card player to heaven. That angel came down to earth and said to the card player - "You have played enough now, your life is over. Come on, let's go to heaven."

The card player said - "Okay. I am leaving. Till then you eat some apples from this apple tree and I will go with you now."

That angel went to pluck an apple from that tree but as soon as he touched that tree, it got stuck to it. It asked the card player to release it from that tree.

The card player said - "Okay, I will come to release you but I will come only when I want, not before that." And saying this he kept roaming here and there.

When he got tired of roaming here and there, he came to the angel and said - “Now I will free you from this tree and go with you.” Saying this he freed the angel from that tree and went with him.

On the way there was hell. There Hades was sitting with his twelve small companions, then the person playing cards said to him - “I want to play a game of cards with you. If I lose then I will stay with you forever and if you lose then you give me your twelve small companions.”

Hades agreed and he started playing cards. Now with the blessing of Christ no one could defeat him, so he won and he took Hades’s twelve small companions and went away.

Now he came to heaven. When Christ saw other people coming with that man, he said to that man - “I had asked only you to come but you have brought so many people with you.”

The man said - "I had also invited only you for dinner and you thirteen people came to my house. I have also brought twelve people with me."

On hearing this, Christ allowed all the thirteen people to come to heaven.