In this anecdote from Jami's Baharestan, three sages at the court of Chosroes (Kisra) debate which affliction is the hardest to bear. The philosopher of Rome names old age and frailty joined with poverty; the sage of India names a sick body burdened with great sorrow; and Bozorgmehr answers that the harshest thing is the nearness of one's appointed death (اجل) combined with distance from good deeds (حسن عمل). All defer to Bozorgmehr's judgment. The concept distills the tale's teaching: the ultimate hardship is not physical decline or material want but the dread of approaching death while spiritually unprepared, having failed to store up virtuous action.