The weather was sunny when a poor boy sat on one of the sidewalks, with signs of misery and need appearing on his features. He had a hat on his feet and beside him a sign that said: I am blind, I ask for help. There were only a few coins in that hat, even though he had been sitting there for a long time.
While he was in this state, a man who seemed to be middle-aged passed by him. When he saw him, he took some coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. Before leaving, he picked up the sign next to the child and wrote some words on it, then left.
Everyone walking on the road who saw that sign headed directly to the child and put some coins in his hat. Soon the hat began to fill with money, and the boy didn’t know why. What was the difference made by that passerby who wrote something on his sign?
At midday, the man who had changed the sign returned to know how things were going with the child. The boy felt him and recognized him from the sound of his footsteps, then asked him: Sir, are you the same person who was here in the morning and wrote something on my sign? The man said: Yes, I am.
The boy asked in wonder: What did you write that made everyone give me all this money? The man said: I didn’t write anything but the truth, but I wrote it in a different way. All I wrote was: (Today is a beautiful day, but I cannot see it).
Even though both sentences gave the same meaning, that the boy was deprived of the blessing of sight, the second sentence written by that passerby had the stronger impact because it made people feel lucky that they could enjoy this beautiful day because they had the blessing of sight, while he did not.
Moral value learned: When life gives you 100 reasons to cry, show 1000 reasons to smile. Be grateful for the blessings you have and be creative in your choice of words and expressing everything that happens to you. Think positively and differently until you reach your goal in the journey of life.
Translated from: The blind boy