A university student came out one day and went for a stroll with a professor whom the students considered a friend due to his kindliness for those who followed his instructions. While walking, they saw on the path a pair of old shoes and they assumed it belonged to an old man who worked in the neighboring field and who was near finishing his daily labour.
The student told the professor, “Let’s play a prank on him. Let’s hide his shoes and we hide ourselves behind those bushes to see his face when he cannot find them.”
“My dear friend,” Said the professor, “we should never have fun at the expense of the poor. You are rich and can give joy to this man. Place a coin in each shoe and then we hide to see how he reacts when he finds it.”
That he did and both hid among the nearby bushes. The poor man finished his tasks and crossed the terrain searching for his shoes and coat. When he put on his coat he slid his foot in the shoe but when he felt something inside, he bent down to see what it was and found the coin. Flabbergasted he asked himself what could have happened. He looked at the coin and looked at it again. Then he looked around, on all sides, but did not see anybody. He put it in his pocket and put on the other shoe; his surprise was double when he found the other coin.
His feelings overwhelmed him. He fell on his knees and raised his sight to heaven pronouncing a fervent thankfulness in a loud voice, speaking of his sick wife and without help and of his children that did not have food and that sue to an unknown hand they would not starve to death.
The student was profoundly affected and his eyes welled with tears.
“Now,” said the professor, “aren’t you more pleased than if you would have played a prank?”
The youth answered, “You have taught me a lesson that I will never forget. Now I understand something that before I did not — it is better to give than to receive.” — Author Unknown
