Once in a village lived two boys who were childhood friends. As time passed, one of them moved out of village and grew up to become a saint while other friend became thief, started earning his living by stealing here and there.
One day, Saint came to his town. A discourse was organized for villagers. Among all other people, his childhood friend also came to listen to saint’s discourse.
As soon as saint saw his friend, he recognized him and called him in front and made him sit near him.
Discourse started. Everyone was spell bound. When discourse ended, applause erupted.
In end, saint said, “This village is my birth place, I want to build a hospital and it would cost ten lakhs and i hope to collect this amount from this pandal today. A basket will come to you, please put as much amount as you can.”
That friend of saint also took out ten thousand from his pocket to give in charity.
People started donating generously. Two lakhs, five lakhs, ten lakhs gathered and basket was still circulating.
Saint’s friend thought – When so much money has already been collected then what is importance of my small amount. He thought five thousand would be enough.
Soon fifteen lakhs were collected in basket. Seeing this, instead of five thousand, now friend reduced the amount of donation to one thousand.
Soon, twenty lakhs were collected and just then suddenly, there was power failure.
When basket came to friend, he thought that when the donation amount has doubled from the target, then why to put even one thousand now? He immediately put his money back in his pocket.
Soon discourse was over and mostly people left.
Friend also got up and started walking with saint. While walking friend of saint praised him for his popularity and good deeds. He said, “You speak amazingly. What an influence you have! You asked for ten lakhs and twenty lakhs have been collected.”
Saint kept listening for some time and then said, “I don’t know, whether i should i ask or not still i am curious to know, how much money did you donate?”
Friend replied, “To tell you truth. I didn’t give anything.”
Saint humbly said, “Then what effect does my speaking in discourse had on you? I couldn’t even encourage my only friend to donate for good cause.”
Friend said, “It is not so. When light was turned off, i felt like stealing some money from basket but i didn’t. It was effect of your discourse that i didn’t do such thing.”
Learning:
Good Company will Save your from Bad Deeds. Keep good company if you want to be a Good person.
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