This story is from Athanasius in Brian McLaren's book A Generous 
Orthodoxy:

Once upon a time there was a good and kind king who had a great kindgom with 
many cities. In one distant city, some people took advantage of the freedom 
the king gave them and started doing evil.  They profited by their evil and 
began to fear that the king would interfere and throw them in jail.  

Eventually these rebels began to hate the king, and they convinced the city that everyone 
would be better off without the king. So the city declared its independence 
from the kingdom.

Soon, everyone was doing whatever they wanted, and disorder and violence 
reigned in the city. Lying, oppression, urder, slavery, you name it, they did it.  

The king thought "What should I do? If I take my army and conquer the city 
by force, the people will fight against me, and I'll have to kill so many of 
them that the rest will only submit through fear or intimidation, which will 
make the them hate me and all I stand for even more.  How does that help them 
to be either dead or imprisoned or secretly seething with rage? But if I 
leave them alone, they'll destroy each other, and it breaks my heart to think 
of the pain they're causing and experiencing."

So the king did something very surprising. He took off his robes and 
dressed in the rags of a homeless wanderer. Unrecognizable, he entered the city and 
began living in a vacant lot near a garbage dump.  He took up a trade fixing 
broken pottery and furniture.  Whenever people came to  him, his kindness and 
goodness and fairness and respect were so striking that they would linger just 
to be in his presence.  They would tell him their fears and questions, and 
ask his advice.  He told them that the rebels had fooled them, and that 
there was a kind and better way to live, which he exemplified and taught.  One 
by one, the two by two, then by the hundreds, people began to have confidence 
in him and live in his way.

Their influence spread to others, and the movement grew and grew until the 
whole city regretted its rebellion and wanted to return to the kingdom again.  
But, ashamed of their horrible mistake, they were afraid to approach the 
king, believing he would certainly destroy them for their rebellion.  But the  
king-in-disguise told them the good news: he was himself the king, and he  
loved them. He held nothing against them, and he welcomed them back into his  
kingdom, having accomplished by a gentle, subtle presence what never could have  
been accomplished through brute force.