This is Good

An old story is told of a king in Africa who had a close friend with whom he grew up. The friend had a habit
        of looking at every situation that ever occurred in his life (positive or negative) and remarking, "This is good!"
        One day the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. The friend would load and prepare the
        guns for the king. The friend had apparently done something wrong in preparing one of the guns. After
        taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it, and his thumb was blown off. Examining the situation the
        friend remarked as usual, "This is good!" To which the king replied, "No, this is NOT good!" and immediately
        sent his friend to jail.
        About a year later, the king was hunting in an area that he should have known to avoid. Cannibals captured
        him and took him to their village. They tied his hands, stacked some wood, set up a stake, and bound him to
        the stake. As they came close to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. Being
        superstitious cannibals, they never ate anyone that was less than whole. So the cannibals untied the king,
        and sent him on his way.
        As he returned home, he was reminded of the incident that had blown off his thumb and felt sadness for his
        treatment of his friend. The king went immediately to the jail to speak with his friend. "You were right," he
        said, "it was good that my thumb was blown off." And he proceeded to tell the friend all that had just
        happened. "And so I am very sorry for sending you to jail for so long. It was bad for me to do this."
        "No," his friend replied, "This is good!" "What do you mean,'This is good'? said the king.
        “How could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a year?" questioned the king.
        "If I had NOT been in jail, I would have been with you." said his friend.