A pilot stranded in the desert awakes one morning to see, standing before him, the most extraordinary little fellow. ''Please,'' asks the stranger, ''draw me a sheep.'' And the pilot realizes that when life's events are too difficult to understand, there is no choice but to succumb to their mysteries. He pulls out pencil and paper . . . and thus begins this wise and enchanting fable that, in teaching the secret of what is really important in life, has changed the world forever.