Moral Short Story – Sharing and Caring
Photo credit: mimiliz from morguefile.com
I was standing in front of a milk shop outside the temple when they caught my attention. My mother was standing in the queue to buy milk and I was waiting for her. They were a group of five beggars. They were very naughty kids and were following people in the hope of money or eatables. After every chase, whether successful or unsuccessful, they would return again to the shop. They were telling people that they were hungry which I assumed to be true as they were saying the same to each other.
One of the customers of the milk shop gave a small container of curd to the youngest of them. Rest of them looked at the container with a clear temptation in their eyes. They all wanted it. The kid having it seemed to realize this. I was curious about his next move. Other kids were staring at him too with pleading eyes. Will he eat it all alone or he would share this?
Then, in spite of being the youngest of them, he made a move which many matured and adult people do not make. He started to give spoonfuls of curd to them one by one. The tallest of them whom I assumed to be the eldest, was cleaning their mouths with his shirt. He was taking care of all of them. Soon the curd finished. All of them had equal number of spoons except one. That kid started crying. All others apologized to him and assured him that he would get the maximum share if they get something else to eat. He seemed to be pleased by it but said that he would have equal share only and was not angry with them. They all smiled and ruffled his hair with affection and then resumed their begging routine.
My mother had bought the milk by then and we moved towards our house. On my way, I was lost in thoughts to analyze what I had just witnessed. The kids just showed me what “sharing and caring” means. They all were hungry. The kid who was offered the curd, could eat it all alone. But he chose to share. The kid who got the least to eat denied to eat more than the rest next time. I don’t know whether they were brothers, cousins or they simply knew each other because of begging together daily but their love and care for each other was more than many who share the same blood.
In a world full of people who can kill their own siblings just for the sake of some pieces of land or paper, kids like them can surely teach us a lesson. The world needs the same innocence in so-called adult, elder and matured people too. God bless those kids and their “sharing and caring”.
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