Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a stoic-inspired meditation

designed to help you find strength and insight and wisdom into everyday life.

Each one of these episodes is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of

history's greatest men and women to help you learn from them, to follow in their example,

and to start your day off with a little dose of courage and discipline and justice and wisdom.

For more, visitdailystoic.com. One evening, Epictetus woke up to hear someone in his house.

Walking towards the noise he found a criminal had stolen the iron lamp he kept burning in a shrine in his front hallway.

As always, Epictetus handled the situation with calmness and humor.

Tomorrow, he said to himself, you will find an

earthenware lamp, for a man can only lose what he has. But what if Epictetus had been awake when

the man walked in? What if he'd caught the thief red-handed? What do you have beaten the criminal up?

What he have fought for his prized lamp? Press charges after? Demanded restitution?

Actually, if we know anything about Epictetus, we can say

confidently that the situation would have gone almost exactly as it did. To him, the theft was a

reminder from fate that we don't truly possess anything. It was also a reminder we can guess that

human beings out of desperation or greed do unvirtuous things. That is something we don't control, but we do control how we

respond. We can imagine that Epictetus said he caught the thief and gotten to talk to the man

as the bishop did so beautifully in Le Miz when he catches the thief and he says, take this stolen

silver and use it to become an honest man. People will betray us in life. They will take from us.

We can be hurt and angry and broken about it, or we can use it as Epictetus did, as a reminder of

the transient nature of possession. We can use it as an opportunity as they did in that famous play,

to be merciful, to let them think better of it, to forgive, as Marcus tried to do

...