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.
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