1. Theme: Never say a lie: |
Know this:
During my professional life I had the occasion to understand what people felt about living a virtuous life. Very few believed in it. Many believed that there should not be a rigid frame work for leading the life. Typical opinions expressed by many people I sampled, can be summarized as follows.
(1) Speaking lies is inevitable in life.
(2) It is perfectly all right to say a lie to avoid punishment or to tide over a difficult situation.(3) It is profitable to tell lies.
(4) One can entertain others with lies.
(5) For some, lies are breath. They need no motives.Unfortunately, many are unaware of the truth that: (1) Lies bring about losses and some times disaster.
(2) There are an insignificantly small number of people who live only by Truth. Such people may have no great skills. Yet they are in demand.
(3) Consciously, practice speaking only the truth in every situation. You will discover the benefits and you will never tell a lie again.
Advice:(1) Decide today that you will not tell a lie, in any situation. Well, there are some situations when if you speak the truth it could affect some one seriously. Do not speak the truth but do not lie.
You need to be conscious of this for some days and perhaps a few months. Then you will find that not saying a lie would have become your nature. There is no need to announce it to any one. The moment you do, many would be tempted to test you. You will have time only to go through the tests and nothing else.
There after, you will never look back.There are not many stories that highlight the illeffects of living by lies. The following story will do that. The story originates from Persia. To my surprise, similar stories of Romanian origin are no different in content. This convinces that good judges and rich people who lie are common in every age and place.
Theme: Never Say a lie.
STORY 1
The poor man and the rich merchant.
It was a busy noon in the largest market place in the capital. People had come from far away places for both buying and selling. The merchandise wasbrought on camel backs as well as donkey backs.
A poor man, called Ahmed, earned his living as a porter for merchants in the market. Ahmed was a simple person who worked hard and was a believer in God.
While wading through the crowd, he stumbled on an object on a narrow passage in the market. He bent down to pick the obstacle and leave it on the side of the walk. He found it was a leather money bag. Only very rich merchants own such a big purse. He opened it and found a large number of Gold coins in it.
While he was wondering who might have lost it, an announcer was making the following announcement:
A merchant, Sheik.......... has lost his purse in market. Any one who found it and returned it would be rewarded ten Gold coins. For poor people like Ahmed, ten Gold coins was huge money.
Ahmed approached the announcer and told him that he had found the purse. He requested the announcer to lead him to the merchant who lost the purse.
On seeing Ahmed carrying his lost purse, the sheik’s face litup. He took the purse and counted the coins. Ahmed was waiting for the reward that was announced. Sheik turned his face and pretended to be busy with his work. Ahmed after waiting for some time reminded the sheik that he was waiting for the reward.
Now the sheik kept a cold face. He bluntly told Ahmed that he would not give any reward. He said, “Before the Chief of the soldiers comes to market, vanish from here. Otherwise I will complain to him that you have stolen 100 gold coins from my purse”.
“You will be jailed for ever”, threatened the Sheik. Poor Ahmed took the case to the Sultan.The subjects of the country revered their ruler, known as Sultan for being both just and extremely intelligent.
Sheik and Ahmed were summoned to present their case. Ahmed recounted whatever happened in the market place. He pleaded that the Sheik had not only not kept his promise but also threatened him to get him arrested and jailed.
0It was the turn of the Sheik. Sheik agreed that the purse was lost in the market and that Ahmed located it and brought it to him. But, Sheik said, “When I counted the coins in it, instead of 200 Gold Coins, there were only 100 in it”. “He should have taken those 100 gold coins”. I did him a favor by not handing him over to Chief of Soldiers, because he was poor.
It did not take even a minute for the Sultan to understand the problem. He delivered his judgment, as follows. The judgment, you will find, is logical and indisputable.
My subjects do not lie. I accept the versions given by Ahmed as well as Sheik.
If Ahmed was a dishonest person, he would have kept all the coins with himself. He did not do it.The Sheik found only 100 gold coins instead of 200. This establishes the fact that the purse found by Ahmed is not the one that Sheik lost. So, he ordered Sheik to hand over the purse with 100 Gold coins to Ahmed and instructed his Chief of Security to investigate the missing purse of Sheik.
Ahmed received a reward more than he was promised. The greedy Sheik lost all that came back to him. That was the punishment he received for his lies.