“The evil you do remains with you: The good you do, comes back to you!”

A woman baked chapatti (roti) for members of her family and an extra one for a hungry passerby. She kept the extra chapatti on the window sill, for whosoever would take it away. Every day, a hunchback came and took away the chapatti. Instead of expressing gratitude, he muttered the following words as he went his way: “The evil you do remains with you: The good you do, comes back to you!” This went on, day after day. Every day, the hunchback came, picked up the chapatti and uttered the words:

“The evil you do, remains with you: The good you do, comes back to you!” The woman felt irritated. “Not a word of gratitude,” she said to herself… “Everyday this hunchback utters this jingle! What does he mean?” One day, exasperated, she decided to do away with him. “I shall get rid of this hunchback,” she said. And what did she do? She added poison to the chapatti she prepared for him!

As 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 and kept it on the window sill. 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!”

The hunchback proceeded on his way, blissfully unaware of the war raging in the mind of the woman. 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. For many months, she had no news of him.. She prayed for his safe return.

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 had grown thin and lean. His garments were tattered and torn. He was hungry, starved 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 famished that I collapsed. I would have died, but just then an old hunchback passed by. I begged of him for a morsel of food, and he was kind enough to give me a whole chapatti. As he gave it to me, he said, “This is what I eat everyday: today, I shall give it to you, for your need is greater than mine!”

” As the mother heard those words, her face turned pale. She leaned against the door for support. 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, and he would have lost his life!

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. If you like this, share it with others and I bet so many lives would be touched.

The Big Rocks of Life

One day, an expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration those students will never forget. As he stood in front of the group of high-powered overachievers he said, “Okay, time for a quiz?”, and he pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouth Mason jar and set it on the table in front of him.

He also produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, “Is this jar full?”.

Everyone in the class yelled, Yes! The time management expert replied, “Really?”. He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. He dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks.

He then asked the group once more, “Is the jar full?” By this time the class was on to him. “Probably not”, one of them answered. Good! he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in the jar and it went into all of the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel.

Once more he asked the question, “Is this jar full?” “No!” the class shouted. Once again he said, Good! Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim.

He looked at the class and asked, “What is the point of this illustration?” One eager student raised his hand and said, “The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard you can always fit some more things in it!”.

“No”, the speaker replied, that’s not the point. “The truth is, this illustration teaches us that if you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all.”

“What are the ‘big rocks’ in your life, time with your loved ones, your faith, your education, your dreams, a worthy cause, teaching or mentoring others. Remember to put these ‘big rocks’ in first or you’ll never get them in at all.”

So, tonight, or in the morning, when you are reflecting on this short story, ask yourself this question - What are the ‘big rocks’ in my life Then, put those in your jar first.

"Don’t Change the World"

Once upon a time, there was a king who ruled a prosperous country. One day, he went for a trip to some distant areas of his country.

When he was back to his palace, he complained that his feet were very painful, because it was the first time that he went for such a long trip, and the road that he went through was very rough and stony. He then ordered his people to cover every road of the entire country with leather. Definitely, this would need thousands of animal’ skin, and would cost a huge amount of money.

Then one of his wise servant dared himself to tell the king, “Why do you have to spend that unnecessary amount of money ? Why don’t you just cut a little piece of leather to cover your feet?”

The king was surprised, but he later agreed to his suggestion, to make a “shoe” for himself.

There is actually a valuable lesson of life in this story: “To make this world a happy place to live, you better change yourself - your heart; and not the world.”

"The Sands of Forgiveness"

A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face.

The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand:

TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him.

After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone:

TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE.

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, “After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?”

The other friend replied “When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it.”

LEARN TO WRITE YOUR HURTS IN THE SAND AND TO CARVE YOUR BENEFITS IN STONE.

" 10 Principles for Peace of Mind "

1. Do Not Interfere In Others’ Business Unless Asked:

Most of us create our own problems by interfering too often in others’ affairs. We do so because somehow we have convinced ourselves that our way is the best way, our logic is the perfect logic and those who do not conform to our thinking must be criticized and steered to the right direction, our direction. This thinking denies the existence of individuality and consequently the existence of God.. God has created each one of us in a unique way. No two human beings can think or act in exactly the same way. All men or women act the way they do because God within them prompts them that way. Mind your own business and you will keep your peace.

2. Forgive And Forget:

This is the most powerful aid to peace of mind. We often develop ill feelings inside our heart for the person who insults us or harms us. We nurture grievances. This in turn results in loss of sleep, development of stomach ulcers, and high blood pressure. This insult or injury was done once, but nourishing of grievance goes on forever by constantly remembering it. Get over this bad habit. Life is too short to waste in such trifles. Forgive,20Forget, and march on. Love flourishes in giving and forgiving.

3. Do Not Crave For Recognition:

This world is full of selfish people. They seldom praise anybody without selfish motives. They may praise you today because you are in power, but no sooner than you are powerless, they will forget your achievement and will start finding faults in you. Why do you wish to kill yours if in striving for their recognition? Their recognition is not worth the aggravation. Do your duties ethically and sincerely.

4. Do Not Be Jealous:

We all have experienced how jealousy can disturb our peace of mind. You know that you work harder than your colleagues in the office, but sometimes they get promotions; you do not. You started a business several years ago, but you are not as successful as your neighbor whose business is only one year old. There are several examples like these in everyday life. Should you be jealous? No. Remember everybody’s life is shaped by his/her destiny, which has now become his/her reality. If you are destined to be rich, nothing in the world can stop you. If you are not so destined, no one can help you either. Nothing will be gained by blaming others for your misfortune. Jealousy will not get you anywhere; it will only take away your peace of mind.

5. Change Yourself According To The Environment:

If you try to change the environment single-handedly, the chances are you will fail. Instead, change yourself to suit your environment. As you do this, even the environment, which has been unfriendly to you, will mysteriously change and seem congenial and harmonious.

6. Endure What Cannot Be Cured:

This is the best way to turn a disadvantage into an advantage. Every day we face numerous inconveniences, ailments, irritations, and accidents that are beyond our control. If we cannot control them or change them, we must learn to put up with these things. We must learn to endure them cheerfully. Believe in yourself and you will gain in terms of patience, inner strength and will power.

7. Do Not Bite Off More Than You Can Chew:

This maxim needs to be remembered constantly. We often tend to take more responsibilities than we are capable of carrying out. This is done to satisfy our ego. Know your limitations. . Why take on additional loads that may create more worries? You cannot gain peace of mind by expanding your external activities. Reduce your material engagements and spend time in prayer, introspection and meditation. This will reduce those thoughts in your mind that make you restless. Uncluttered mind will produce greater peace of mind.

8. Meditate Regularly:

Meditation calms the mind and gets rid of disturbing thoughts. This is the highest state of peace of mind. Try and experience it yourself. If you meditate earnestly for half an hour everyday, your mind will tend to become peaceful during the remaining twenty-three and half-hours. Your mind will not be easily disturbed as it was before. You would benefit by gradually increasing the period of daily meditation. You may think that this will interfere with your daily work. On the contrary, this will increase your efficiency and you will be able to produce better results in less time.

9. Never Leave The Mind Vacant:

An empty mind is the devil’s workshop. All evil actions start in the vacant mind. Keep your mind occupied in something positive, something worthwhile. Actively follow a hobby. Do something that holds your interest. You must decide what you value more: money or peace of mind. Your hobby, like social work or religious work, may not always earn you more money, but you will have a sense of fulfillment and achievement. Even when you are resting physically, occupy yourself in healthy reading or mental chanting of God’s name.

10. Do Not Procrastinate And Never Regret:

Do not waste time in protracted wondering ” Should I or shouldn’t I?” Days, weeks, months, and years may be wasted in that futile mental debating. You can never plan enough because you can never anticipate all future happenings. Value your time and do the things that need to be done. It does not matter if you fail the first time. You can learn from your mistakes and succeed the next time. Sitting back and worrying will lead to nothing. Learn from your mistakes, but do not brood over the past. DO NOT REGRET. Whatever happened was destined to happen only that way. Why cry over split milk?

Do Not Compare Your Work !!!!

A mechanic was removing the cylinder heads from the motor of a car when he spotted the famous heart surgeon in his shop, who was standing off to the side, waiting for the service manager to come to take a look at his car.

The mechanic shouted across the garage, "Hello Doctor! Please come over here for a minute."

The famous surgeon, a bit surprised, walked over to the mechanic. The mechanic straightened up, wiped his hands on a rag and asked argumentatively, "So doctor, look at this. I also open hearts, take valves out, grind 'em, put in new parts, and when I finish this will work as a new one. So how come you get the big money, when you and me is doing basically the same work."

The doctor leaned over and whispered to the mechanic, "Try to do it when the engine is running."

The Unfriendly River

Once upon a time there was a river. This river was rather unfriendly and lonesome. The river could not remember how long ago he had decided that he no longer wanted to put up with anything or anyone. He lived alone, refusing to share his water with any fish, plant or animal.

And so his life went on, sadly and filled with loneliness, for many centuries.
One day, a little girl with a goldfish bowl came to the bank of this river. In the bowl lived Scamp, her favourite little fish. The girl was about to move to another country, and she wouldn't be able to take Scamp with her. So she had decided to give Scamp his freedom.

When Scamp fell into the river, he immediately felt the river's loneliness. Scamp tried talking to the river, but the river told Scamp to go away. Now, Scamp was a very happy little fish, and he wasn't going to give up so easily. He asked and asked, swam and swam, and finally he started jumping in and out of the water.
The river, feeling all the jumping and splashing, started to laugh. It tickled!

After a while, this put the river in such a good mood that he started talking to Scamp. Almost without knowing it, by the end of that day, Scamp and the river had become very good friends.

The river spent that night thinking about how much fun it was to have friends, and how much he had missed by not having them. He asked himself why he had never had them, but he couldn't remember.

The next morning, Scamp woke the river with a few playful splashes... and that was when the river remembered why he had decided to be such an unfriendly river:

He remembered that he was very ticklish, and that he wouldn't have been able to stand it! Now he remembered perfectly how he had told everyone to scoot, that he wasn't going to put up with all that tickling.

But, remembering how sad and lonely he had felt for so many years, the river realised that although it may sometimes be a bit inconvenient or uncomfortable, it was always better to have friends and to try to be happy.

It’s always better to have friends and be happy - even though it may bring discomfort - than isolate yourself from people in order to avoid problems.

The Last Thousand Dragons

There are many legends dealing with the extinction of dragons, but only one of them involves a certain Sir Emile, a brave knight who finished off the last thousand dragons. Like many others, Sir Emile spent years studying the cruel and wicked behaviour of the dragons of his time. However, his own particular conclusions were unique and unusual: dragons lived in a constant state of anger, which created the fire that came from their mouths.

So, when he decided to finish the dragons off, he swapped the normal weapons and armour of a knight for something rather unusual: a joke and a cart full of ice creams. When the first dragon came to eat him, Sir Emile shouted his joke at it. It was such a good joke that even the dragon had to laugh. Just as the brave knight had expected, this blew the dragon's fire out. Just as the dragon was laughing, Sir Emile offered it an ice cream...

How refreshed and pleasant the dragon now felt, after years of having had a fiery throat! Taking advantage of the dragon having calmed down for a moment, Sir Emile offered it a piece of fruit, and to the dragon this tasted heavenly.

Dragons didn't normally eat fruit or vegetables, because the fire of their mouths burned such food and left it without any taste. So they preferred to eat cows or people, which, even though left a bit singed, at least tasted of something. However, when the dragon tasted fresh fruit for the first time, it felt so happy and joyful that even its terrible appearance began to change. It had looked so bad because of its awful diet, but after only a few days of this new, healthier, life, the dragon disappeared one night. All that remained of it was a beautiful butterfly with large colourful wings...

And so it was, that Sir Emile, using only some good jokes and a cart full of ice cream and fruit, made the last thousand dragons disappear and take up new life in the form of beautiful butterflies.

You can change people’s lives by bringing them a little joy and good health.

The Little Stone Bird

Once upon a time, there was a bird made of stone. She was a beautiful creature, and she was also magic. She lived near the entrance to a picturesque forest between two mountains. The bird was so heavy that she had to walk along the ground.

Despite this, though, she enjoyed looking up at the trees every day, dreaming of one day being able to fly and enjoy viewing the beautiful countryside from up high.

But that dream disappeared after the great fire.

All that was left of the trees were charred stumps, and any plants and animals that lived there had gone. The stone bird was the only form of life able to survive the fire, but when she saw what had become of the forest, she was overcome with sadness, and couldn't stop crying. She cried and cried for hours, then days. She cried with such feeling that her tears were wearing away her stone body. Finally the body was completely worn away and the bird had turned into a puddle of water.

But when the sun came out, that puddle of tears evaporated into the sky and became a happy little cloud which could fly over the trees and see everything below.

Since then, the little cloud has travelled all over the world, enjoying the views of all the forests and beautiful countryside. And remembering what destruction fire brought to its own forest, the cloud is now very careful to pour its rain down on any tree it sees burning.

A story to develop sensitivity and love of nature

The Burger who didn’t want to be junk food

Once upon a time there was a burger who had many lives. Each day she would wake up in the burger bar, and patiently wait her turn to be cooked by the chefs, before being served to the customers. While being eaten, she would do everything possible to make herself really delicious, and with the customer’s final bite she would feel like the lights had gone out and she had simply fallen asleep. The next day the whole process would repeat itself.

The little burger could have continued quietly living this way for many years if it hadn’t been for the fact that, one day, while she was waiting her turn at the cooking range, she heard one of the customers referring to her as “junk food”. And, boy, did this make her angry! She was so furious that she almost spontaneously combusted.

From then on she realised that many people used that term about her and her sisters. And after listening closely to any radio or television program about junk food or healthy food, she arrived at a horrifying conclusion: it was true, she was “junk food”.

Now she understood why most of her favourite customers were now much fatter than they had been when she first met them, and why those who came most often didn’t look too well. The burger felt terrible; all this was her fault! So she tried to find some solution, some way they could shake off that terrible name.

And then she hit on it. Whenever she saw one of the kids who visited almost daily, she would choose the best place to be chosen, and would wait to be served. Once he was with the child, and the important moment wasn’t far off – the first bite - the burger would concentrate as much as she could and... nothing happened. The child sank their teeth into the burger and chewed the mouthful just as usual. Then along came another bite, with the burger concentrating as before, but everything happened just as before…

Several more bites and the burger was about to give up, when she heard the child’s voice:

-"Blimey, how strange! This burger doesn't taste of anything."

That was just the start of what turned out to be a perfect plan. The burger convinced all her sisters not to have any flavour whenever they were with a customer that visited too often, in return for being even more tasty when the customer came only rarely.

In this way they began to see fewer chubby, unhealthy-looking faces in the restaurant, and many of their old familiar friends started looking much better, while getting to eat much tastier burgers.

And these burgers became much more popular from then on, because, everywhere, it's more enjoyable to taste something after a while of not having had it.

Teaching how to eat “junk food” sparingly, and not abuse it.

Thomas Crum and his Drum

Thomas Crum was a boy made from blue and orange plasticine, and he lived in a school. Even though he had many good qualities, he had started to lack respect for others. When his Aunt Agatha, a big multi-coloured ball of plasticine, gave him a drum for his birthday, he was a nightmare. It didn't matter to him if everyone asked him to play the drum a little quieter, or to go and play somewhere else: Thomas went all round the classroom beating his drum, and the fact that he was annoying others didn't affect him in the least.

His classmates stopped wanting to play with him. They suffered so much from his noisy drum that even Coco Wiseman, a very intelligent figure made of lego, invented some special earplugs which allowed you to hear normal sounds, but blocked out the annoying ones. On seeing that the others were ignoring him, and not even being annoyed any more, Thomas got very angry with Coco Wiseman. After a big fight, the inventor ended up falling to the floor all the way from the height of the table. On impact, the blocks he was made of broke up and separated.

Even though it was an accident, everyone was angry with Thomas. No one wanted anything more to do with him, although that didn't bother him a great deal. Everything would have stayed like that if it hadn't have been for the fact that a few days later, a lovely cuckoo clock was put in the classroom, just next to the shelf Thomas slept on. The cuckoo clock was constantly making noise.

-"Tick tock, tick tock,"

and to top it all, every hour the cuckoo came out to do its

-"cuckoo cuckoo!"

Thomas couldn't get any rest at all. However, the others, with their special earplugs, were fine.

Then Thomas started to realise just how much he had annoyed everyone with his drum, and how stupid it had been to fight with Coco Wiseman. Coco was the only one who would be able to help him now. Determined to rectify the situation, and so everyone would eventually see he was becoming the best-behaved, most respectful boy, he spent all his time reconstructing Coco Wiseman in secret. He spent many days and nights working on him, and he finally finished the job just when he could hardly have gone on any longer, what with hardly getting any sleep because of the cuckoo clock.

When Coco was built and came back to life, everyone got a huge surprise, and they enthusiastically congratulated and thanked Thomas for all his work. Thomas, in return, asked them to forgive him for his lack of consideration. And so, although Coco Wiseman was a bit angry at him, Thomas managed to convince him to make a pair of earplugs for him too.

Finally Thomas could get some sleep, and never again was he as inconsiderate as he had been before.

Respect and consideration for others are fundamental for living in groups, because there will always be something which annoys people.

A Spider in the Museum

Once upon a time, there was a painting spider, one of those artistic species of spider, that live in the basements of museums and galleries. They live there alongside paintings left and forgotten for years; certainly a suitable place to spin the most impressive of webs. Our spider spun the best webs in the whole museum, and his house was really spectacular. All his efforts went into looking after the web, which he considered to be the most valuable in the world.

However, as time went on, the museum set about reorganising its paintings, and it started making space upstairs to put some of the basement paintings on display. Many of the basement spiders realised what was happening, and were cautious about it, but our spider paid it no mind:

-"Doesn't matter,"

he would say,

-"it'll just be a few paintings."

More and more paintings were removed from the basement, but the spider carried on reinforcing his web,

-"Where am I going to find a better place than this?"

he would say.

That was, until early one morning when, too quick for him to react, they took his own painting, along with the spider and his web. The spider realised that just for not having wanted to lose his web, he was now going to end up in the exhibition room.

In an act of strength and decisiveness, he chose to abandon his magnificent web, the web he had worked his whole life to build up. And it's a good job he did so, because that way he saved himself from the insect killer they were spraying on the paintings up in the exhibition room.

In his escape, after overcoming many difficulties, the spider ended up in a secluded little garden, where he found such a quiet corner that there he was able to spin an even better web, and became a much happier spider.

Things change, and we have to adapt to this and make the most of the new opportunities this brings; even when that means renouncing what we already have.