This is a beautiful story in which how man cannot cheat his death because of his ego.
There was a great sculptor in Rome. His statues were so highly praised that for the first time unanimously the critics said, ”There is no more possibility of improvement.” He has said the last word; his statues look almost alive, as if just any moment the statue will come out of its place to greet you, to shake hands with you or give you a hug” – although I don’t think you will be ready!
Then the man became old, as everybody has to become old, and he became afraid of death. As oldness started settling he started thinking what to do about death. Being a sculptor this idea came to his mind easily: ”I can make a statue of myself.” And he had a beautiful round hall where hundreds of statues were standing and sitting. So he thought, ”When death comes I will be standing somewhere inside the crowd of my statues; only I have to keep my breathing as slow as possible.” And that was possible, because people used to say that his statues seemed as if they were breathing. They were so alive that they would do something, they could not remain standing forever in that way.
Death came and was puzzled. The sculptor had made a few statues of himself and placed them among other statues. Death could not believe that … she went around watching, looking, trying to find some sign but she failed. She said, ”My God! He has done only one thing wrong…”
And the artist forgot completely the situation and the scene and said, ”What?” Death said, “You cannot forget yourself. And that I could see even by your nose, but I did not disturb you. I simply went on looking around. I wanted to see whether you could remain silent. That would have been really going beyond death – but you could not forget your ego and you were feeling more and more satisfied. The more I was going ahead, looking like a failure … I was seeing from the corner of my eye that you were looking more and more successful, certain that you had defeated death. I can be defeated but not by the ego.”
