Rabbi Akiva had a saying he repeated so often his disciples knew it by heart: Kol de'avid Rachmana letav avid — "Whatever the Merciful One does is done for the best."
Once he was traveling, and he carried with him three things: a lamp, to read by at night; a donkey, to ride by day; and a rooster, to wake him at dawn. He came to a town and knocked at every door, but no one would give him shelter. The inhabitants turned him away. So Akiva went outside the town, made camp in a field, lit his lamp, tied his donkey, and set the rooster on his pack.
A wind came up and blew out the lamp. Akiva sat in the darkness and said, "Whatever God does is done for the best."
A lion came out of the hills and killed the donkey. Akiva, sitting on the ground now without his mount, said, "Whatever God does is done for the best."
A cat came from nowhere and strangled the rooster. Akiva, alone now with nothing at all, said again, "Whatever God does is done for the best." And he lay down to sleep.
In the morning he walked back toward the town. When he reached it, he found it sacked. Robbers had raided the village during the night, taken everything, killed many of the townspeople. The houses were empty. The streets were silent.
And then Akiva understood. If his lamp had burned, the robbers would have seen the light and found him in the field. If his donkey had brayed, they would have heard. If his rooster had crowed, they would have come to investigate. The three "losses" had been three quiet rescues.
Gaster's Exempla (no. 150, 1924) closes with no commentary. The story is the commentary.