When a person tries to help others without hypocrisy or boasting, he must consider that helping the distressed needs no noise but should be done in silence so that he receives its reward, because noise wastes the good deed and makes it as if it never happened. For help here is linked to people seeing and witnessing it, which is what God doesn’t love or approve of.
A famous circus once came to a village from the rural villages. Its residents rushed with their children and family members to visit it, as it was the first time the circus had reached their remote village. Among those gathered at the circus door was a poor farmer who came with his wife and his four children to fulfill their urgent desire to see the traveling circus and watch its beautiful segments.
The farmer stood proudly in the middle of his family, on whose faces features of happiness were drawn because for the first time they would watch the circus they always heard about in tales and stories. The man was waiting for his turn at the ticket window. When his turn came, he asked for tickets for himself and his family.
But what the saleswoman mentioned about the ticket price fell on his head like a thunderbolt. The price was more than what he carried in his pocket. The humble man didn’t know how to act: should he proceed in silence and break his family’s hope, or give the money in his pocket and expose himself to embarrassment.
The man stood in a situation not to be envied. His face was dripping with sweat, his hand feeling the money in his pocket and returning disappointed to rest on the ticket window. In his eyes was a bewildered look, while the looks of his children’s eyes were gazing at him with questioning and persistence.
The man standing behind him noticed what was happening, and although his condition wasn’t much better than that of the bewildered farmer, he helped him when he dropped some coins from his pocket onto the ground, then bent to pick them up after patting the shoulder of the farmer standing in front of him, saying: Excuse me, brother, a sum of money fell from you.
The farmer looked at the man with a look full of gratitude and thanks for what he did with him intentionally, saying to him with tears about to flow from his eyes: Thank you, brother. I won’t forget your favor as long as I live. With this, the kind man was able to help the farmer in a poor condition without embarrassing him or making him feel inferiority and poverty.