My Little Story - 2

There was a king who presented his daughter with a beautiful diamond necklace. The necklace was stolen and his people in the kingdom searched everywhere but could not find it. The king then asked them all to search for it and put a reward for $50,000 for anyone who found it.

One day, a clerk was walking home along a river next to an industrial area. This river was completely polluted and filthy and smelly. As he was walking, the clerk saw a shimmering in the river and when he looked, he saw the diamond necklace. He decided to try and catch it so that he could get the $50,000 reward.

He put his hand in the filthy, dirty river and grabbed at the necklace, but some how missed it and didn't catch it. He took his hand out and looked again and the necklace was still there. He tried again. This time he walked in the river and dirtied his pants in the filthy river and put his whole arm in to catch the necklace.

But strangely, he still missed the necklace! He came out and started walking away, feeling depressed. This time he was really bewildered and came out feeling very depressed that he could not get the necklace that would get him $50,000.

Just then, a saint who was walking by, saw him, and asked him what was the matter. The clerk didn't want to share the secret with the saint, thinking he might take the necklace for himself, so he refused to tell him anything.

The saint could see this man was troubled. Being compassionate, he again asked the clerk to tell him the problem and promised that he would not tell anyone about it. The clerk mustered some courage and decided to put some faith in the saint. He told him about the necklace and how he tried and tried to catch it, but kept failing.

The saint then told him that perhaps he should try looking upward, toward the branches of the tree, instead of in the filthy river. The clerk looked up and true enough, the necklace was dangling on the branch of a tree. He had been trying to capture a mere reflection of the real necklace all this time.

My Little Story

Everyday a man would carry to the river a set of pots in his cart, to help him transport water. All the pots were brightly painted and sturdy, except for one little cracked pot.
The cracked pot would try its best to hold in the water, so that the man would be proud of it, but to no avail, for on the way back from the river, water would drip from the pot into the ground.
The other pots knew that this little pot was different from them and refused to treat it with respect. Soon the little pot began to doubt itself and asked the man,
“I am a cracked pot, try as I might I cannot hold on to the water inside, why then do you still take me every day and fill me with water?”
The man answered to all the pots. “This little cracked pot deserves more respect from all of you. While you merely transport water, I can replace you at any time, but look below, I have planted little flowers all the way from my home to the river. When I fill this cracked pot with water, the water drips down, falling on the dry earth and making the plants grow.”
The other pots were silent.
Let's ask ourselves - do we take every opportunity to acknowledge and respect the difference?
So let us try to respect and appreciate the differences of all that we meet.