I remember in Paolo Coelho’s book “Like the Flowing River”, he wrote two stories about the same subject, of which I’ve mentioned in my earlier post – Charity. I’ve simplified the stories a bit. Now, let me share them with you.
(1)
It’s about the writer and his wife’s encounter with an old beggar woman who were sitting on a wheelchair with a few plastic bags hanging at the back. They both offered the woman some help, wherein she had requested the couple to bring her to another place where other beggars are gathering.
Upon reaching that place, the woman then took few bottles of milk out of the plastic bags and gave them to her beggar friends. Surprised by what they saw, the woman said: “People are charitable to me, and so I must be charitable to others”.
(2)
It’s the writer’s wife experience in helping someone (a tourist) who claimed that he was robbed by the local kids and was left with nothing – no money, no identity card, no passport, nothing at all. And so she helped by giving him some money, before she found out from the newspaper few days later that the guy was actually a con-artist from the city who, for all these while, was taking advantage of the good Samaritan. She told her husband about it and how it just happened that she became the victim of this guy but nonetheless she said, nothing would stop her from helping anyone ,again.
Paolo’s wife’s last sentence reminds him of another story of a wise man who just moved to a new city and became the subject of criticisms and animosity among the people. One day, while he was walking down the street, a group of people began insulting him. He then turned around and blessed the people. Surprised with the wise man’s action, the group of people asked why would he offer them blessings and sweet words when they had called him with names. The wise man replied: “We can each of us only offer what we have”
Well, that’s the stories. So, what do you think we can learn from it? :)
The Way I Am 