THE PRECIOUS STONE

A wise woman who was travelling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream.
The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation.

The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime.
But, a few days later, he came back to return the stone to the wise woman.“I’ve been thinking,” he said. “I know how valuable this stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious.
"Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me this stone ."

HOW POOR WE ARE

One day a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people live.
They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.On their return from the trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”“It was great, Dad”.
“Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked.
“Oh yes”, said the son.“So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.
The son answered:“I saw that we have one dog and they had four.“We have a pool that reaches to the middle of the garden and they have a creek that has no end.“We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.
“Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.“We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.
“We buy our food, but they grow theirs.“We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.”
The boy’s father was speechless. Then his son added:“Thanks, Dad for showing me how poor we are.”