Never stop doing good
A woman baked chapatti for members of her family and an extra one for a hungry passerby. She kept the extra chapatti on the window sill. Every day, a hunchback came and took away the chapatti. Instead of expressing gratitude1, he muttered2 the following words as he went his way: "The evil3 you do remains with you: The good you do, comes back to you!"
The woman felt irritated4. "Not a word of gratitude," she said to herself… "Everyday this hunchback utters this jingle! What does he mean?" One day, she decided to do away with him. She added poison to the chapatti she prepared for him!
she was about to keep it on the window sill, her hands trembled. "What is this I am doing?" she said. Immediately, she threw the chapatti into the fire, prepared another one. As usual, the hunchback came, picked up the chapatti and muttered the words: "The evil you do, remains with you: The good you do, comes back to you!"
Every day, as the woman placed the chapatti on the window sill, she offered a prayer for her son who had gone to a distant place to seek his fortune.
That evening, there was a knock on the door. As she opened it, she was surprised to find her son standing in the doorway. He was hungry and weak. As he saw his mother, he said, "Mom, it’s a miracle I’m here. While I was but a mile away, I was so famished5 that I collapsed. I would have died, but just then an old hunchback passed by. He was kind enough to give me a whole chapatti. He said, "Your need is greater than mine!"
She remembered the poisoned chapatti that she had made that morning. Had she not burnt it in the fire, it would have been eaten by her own son!
It was then that she realized the significance of the words: "The evil you do remains with you: The good you do, comes back to you!" Do good and don’t ever stop doing good, even if it is not appreciated at that time.
Annotations:
gratitude1: n. 感激，感恩
muttered2: v. 咕哝，喃喃自语
evil3: n. 恶，罪恶
irritated4: adj. 恼怒的，生气的
famished5: adj. 饥肠辘辘的
