A farmer in ancient China had a neighbour who was a hunter, & who owned ferocious & poorly trained hunting dogs.
They jumped over the fence frequently & chased the farmer's lambs.
The farmer asked his neighbour to keep his dogs in check, but this fell on deaf ears.
One day the dogs again jumped the fence, attacked & severely injured several of the lambs.
The farmer had enough of his neighbours negligence.He went to town to consult a judge who listened carefully to the story & said: "I could punish the hunter & instruct him to keep his dogs chained or lock them up. But u would lose a friend & gain an enemy. Which would u rather have, friend or foe for a neighbour?"
The farmer replied that he preferred a friend.
“Alright, I will offer u a solution that keeps ur lambs safe, & which will keep ur neighbour as a friend."
Having heard the judge's solution, the farmer agreed.
Once at home, the farmer immediately put the judge's suggestions to the test.
He took three of his best lambs & presented them to his neighbour's three small sons, who were overjoyed to receive such lovely pets & began to play with them.
To protect his sons newly acquired playthings, the hunter built a strong kennel for his dogs.
Since then, the dogs never again bothered the farmer's lambs.
Out of gratitude for the farmer's generosity toward his sons, the hunter often shared the game he had hunted with the farmer.
The farmer reciprocated by sending the hunter, lamb meat & cheese he had made.
Within a short time the neighbours became good friends.
-
A saying in old China went something like this,
“One can win over & influence people the best with gestures of kindness & compassion.”
A similar Western saying:
“One catches more flies with honey than with vinegar."
Aиϑ the best of sayings from Rasulullah sallallaahu alayhi wasallam:
“Do u know what is better than
charity & fasting & prayer?
It is keeping peace &
good relations between people,
as quarrels & bad feelings
destroy mankind.”
(Muslims & Bukhari)
Kindness & compassion are signs of faith. Let us make it a part of us to be polite when we speak & not make rude remarks & bring people down with our words at every opportunity we get, especially with our families, friends & colleagues.
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for sharing this, I have a whole collection of little stories like these.
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