Happiness in Giving

Post date: 09-Mar-2012 08:28:01

A Scholar and his student were walking along the edge of some fields when they saw, lying in the path, and a pair of old shoes. They assumed it belong to a poor man who was employed in the nearby field, who was just about to finish his days’ work.

The young student said to the Scholar: “Let us play a small trick on the man. We will hide his shoes and conceal ourselves behind those bushes and wait & watch him perplexed, when he doesn’t find them.”

The Scholar answered: “My young friend, we should never amuse ourselves at the expense of the poor. For you are rich and may give yourselves as much greater pleasure by means of this poor man. Put a coin in each shoe and then we will hide ourselves and watch how this affects him”.

The student did what the Scholar said, and they both hid behind the nearby bushes. The poor man soon finished his work and came across the field to the path where he had left his shoes. He slipped his foot into one of the shoes, but felt something hard. He stooped down to look and found the coin. The poor man was astonished. He gazed upon the coin, tossed and turned it around. He looked around on all sides and found nobody.

The poor man put the coin in his pocket and proceeded to put his other foot in the shoe and was surprised once again to find another coin. His emotions overcame him and he fell to his knees and looked up to the sky and uttered aloud a fervent thanksgiving, in which he spoke of his wife who was sick and helpless, his children without bread and how this timely help would save them from perishing.

After the poor man left, the student rose, deeply affected and his eyes filled with tears.

Then the Scholar said: “Now, are you not, more pleased than if you had played your intended trick?”

The student replied: “I feel now the truth in these words, which I have never understood before”.

Moral: “It is more blessed to give than to receive”