A millionaire made easy through giving!
Given below is a mythological story from Japan about the beauty of giving to others and it tells us how we can receive the most perfect gifts when we’re giving and grateful of what we own.
This is the folk tale.
Once upon a time, there was a poor young farmer. Everything he did in his life never seemed to produce any wealth for him. He was totally broke with no money, no family and no food. So one night he sneaked into a temple and sat by the altar and in desperation asked the Gods what he was supposed to do.
“I have always been truthful and assiduous, but all my industry never resulted in anything good for me. What did I do wrong?”
He fell asleep near the altar just after he put the question. When he woke up in the morning, he saw in front of him one of the Gods he had seen in his dream, with a bright golden light around him. The God’s voice reverberated in his mind.
“After you wake up in the morning, value that which you have in your hand and keep giving it fully to others as you move forward,” the God told him.
The farmer woke up. He still had many questions jumping through his mind but he lifted himself up and tried to shake off the strangely vivid dream he just had. To his surprise, he saw a piece of straw in his hand. Maybe it was on his clothes after the long day of fieldwork.
He was about to throw the straw away, but remembered what God had told him. Once again he sat down. Then he looked curiously at the bit of straw.
He sat for a while unable to comprehend what all that meant. He did not know how a piece of straw can turn out to be useful. Then he saw a wasp hovering around. After a while the wasp settled on one end of his straw. He caught it and with the help of a thread from his clothes, tied it to the straw. And with a wasp at the end of his straw, he went on his way.
He had gone a little way when he found a small boy and his mother coming towards him from the other end of the road. The boy was weeping. When he said hello to the boy, the child noticed the straw that the man had with a wasp at one end. He stopped his weeping and wanted to have the straw. The farmer was hesitant to give it but then he remembered that God had asked him to value what we owned and also give it to others profusely. So he gave the straw to the boy. The mother was relieved as the boy stopped crying when he got the straw and the wasp. In return she gave the man three tangerines.
The man continued on his way. After a while he started feeling hungry and wanted to eat one of the tangerines. But he stopped short of doing it and remembered that he had to gift things to others, not give it to himself.
He had to climb a steep hill and there he saw a trader sitting on the earth under a tree. Near the man was a wooden box. The farmer wished the trader who seemed to be very tired. The trader saw the tangerines the farmer had and asked if he could have them. The trader said he was very thirsty.
The farmer was also quite thirsty having walked for a long time during the heat of the day but he offered all the tangerines to the merchant. The merchant ate the three tangerines and regained his strength. He was very grateful for the kindness of the farmer and opened the wooden box next to him. There were rolls of hand dyed silk fabric. The merchant handed him one roll, thanked him and walked off.
The farmer proceeded again through the same route. He finally found a rivulet from which he drank water and felt restored. He felt more energetic and comfortable and went on.
The farmer walked and walked not seeing anyone for a long time. He started to think that maybe this was it – his fortune. So, he decided to go to the nearby town to sell the fabric.
But as soon as he turned the corner, he found a group of soldiers. One of them, who appeared to be the leader of the group, was standing near a horse that had fallen on the ground. The leader of the soldiers was saying something to the men of his group.
“It does not appear that this horse would live much. We will have to leave it here. Nurse it well and catch up with me.” With this the leader jumped on to another horse and rode off, moving out of people’s sight.
The fighters who remained there conferred among themselves as to what to do. They had no interest in putting it to death but there was no other option. Finally one of them drew the sword.
The farmer pleaded with them not to do that. He said he was ready to look after the animal. He said they can have the bolt of silk for letting him care for the horse. They agreed to the deal and left the place quickly.
The farmer stood there with the horse that was in its death throes. He felt he might have got it all wrong and that he was not destined to be wealthy. Then he thought of the river that he had come across on the way.
He immediately went back to the stream, took off his shirt and soaked it in the fresh water so he could give water to horse. He returned to the horse still lying there on the ground. The farmer squeezed the wet cloth over the horse’s mouth. Very soon the horse began to respond and regained its consciousness, so the farmer pulled it up with all his might.
The horse finally stood up on its legs so the farmer could take the horse to the stream. As the horse took more water and ate some fresh green grass around the stream, it soon began to regain strength.
Now the farmer had a horse! They set off again together, this time the man had to run to keep up. The horse was actually leading the way. They ran together for miles. As the sun starting to go down, the horse finally stopped in front of a large house. As the farmer caught up, the horse pushed him with his nose to the entrance of the house.
As the farmer made his way to the gate, all of a sudden the gate opened and an old man was standing there. The man looked drawn and he was hastening out onto the road. The old man took notice of the farmer as well as the animal standing nearby.
The man queried the farmer what he wanted. The farmer replied that he was in need of a place to retire for the night. The old man in his turn said that he had to go to the town on an important matter and requested the farmer to be in charge of the house till such time that he returned. He said that his returning might get delayed.
The old man looked as if he was in a hurry, so the farmer told him he can take his horse. The old man was very grateful about it and immediately left with the horse. As he left, he said something totally unexpected to the farmer.
“If I am not back in three years, this house becomes yours.”
As you perhaps inferred, the old man did not return.
The farmer lived in the large house for the rest of his life with a land full of crops surrounded by kind neighbors happily ever after. But he never forgot to always give away the things he had.
Thank you for going through this story. And what is the message that it contains?
Maybe there is a key to something. When we can turn our ‘getting game’ into a ‘giving game’, our life often flows bringing more abundance. But it is not always easy to practice the old wisdom in our real life.
Given below are the remarkable factors that we can glean from the story:
* When we give the things that others want, they usually value it more than we value it while when we are trying to ’sell’ something (because fundamentally, we want to get something from the deal), they compare the value with our asking price and try to pay less.
* When we are not attached to the things we have, we often find that we attract better opportunities as we can let go of existing ones.
* When what life offers is not a bed of roses, instead of concentrating on the difficulty if we kept our attention on giving and sharing, life is sure to bring in good things later.
* If we try to turn into cash what we have accumulated, because of the conviction that “this is all it would get” thinking that if we do not encash it, we will lose, our life will stand still. Instead, why don’t we keep on giving more and more irrespective of what we have or whether we are actually rich or not.
Giving is part of many successful people’s lives. When we give first, we have more chance of living a life of magnificence, ease and expansion.
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