Heart of gold
This is a true story.
I heard it on the radio during one of my visits to the US.
It happened in one of the biggest cities of the world, New York.
It was winter.
One evening a worried woman stood shivering by the road, wearing
an old coat.
With her was a little girl, thin, sick- looking with a shaven
head.
She was wearing an oversize dress which somebody had probably
given to her out of mercy.
It was apparent that they were homeless and poor.
The child had a cardboard placard in her hand which said, I am
suffering from cancer. Please help me.
The mother was carrying a begging bowl.
Whenever the traffic
lights turned red they would approach
people, stopping them on the
road and asking for help.
America is a rich country, but if you are sick and don’t have insurance,
then you are lost.
Nobody can support you. People give small amounts of money
when they see such pleas for help.
This kind of a scene is not uncommon in India.
We see lots of beggars with small infants in one hand and a
begging bowl in another.
But in America it is not so common.
People felt bad for this unfortunate mother and child.
One day a policeman was passing by and saw them.
He asked them a few questions
and noticed that the child
indeed looked very sick
with her swollen eyes and shaven head.
He wanted to help, so he opened his purse.
He saw a bundle of notes which he had just drawn from the bank.
He had received a good bonus for the excellent work he had done.
He thought, I have a warm home, a caring wife and a loving
son. God has been very kind to me. But these unfortunate people don’t have any
one of these things. It is not their mistake
that God has not been kind to them, he remembered the many things he had
promised his wife and son he would buy when he got his
bonus.
For a while he was in two minds. Then he decided and gave all
the cash which he had drawn from the bank to the women and said, “Please take
good care of the child.”
When he reached home his son met him at the doorstep as usual and
hugged him.
The house was warm and nice.
He sat in front of his wife, and looking at the snow falling
outside, he narrated the whole incident.
After listening to him for a while his wife was silent, then
she smiled. But the son was angry. He said, “Dad, how are you sure that
they have not cheated you and even though you wanted
to give some money you could have given some portion . Why did you give everything?”
The policeman laughed at his son and said, “Son, you do not
know what poverty is. I come across such unfortunate people in my work.”
The days passed and everybody forgot about it.
One day a news item in the paper caught the son’s attention “mother
and child caught cheating”.
With great interest he read, a greedy mother used her healthy
child to pose as a cancer patient.
She shaved the child’s head, starved her and dressed her
shabbily so that anybody would feel the child was suffering from cancer.
Using this tactic she duped many people.
The mother has been arrested.
The son realized who these people were and was very upset.
When his father came home, he told him as soon as he entered
the house, “Dad, you were cheated by that lady and her child who you thought
was a cancer patient. The child is healthy and you gave away your entire bonus
to that child.”
His father did not reply.
He sat down, and looked out of the window.
There were children playing outside.
Winter was over and summer was setting in.
In a calm voice, “He said, son, I am very happy. The child is
healthy.” The boy was surprised.
He thought being a
policeman, his father would pick up the phone
and talk to the police station or
he would be depressed that he had been cheated
and given away so much of money
to a healthy child. But there were no traces of such emotions.
He asked, “Dad, tell me, are you not upset?”
His father again gave him the same answer, “I am happy that
the child is healthy.” By that time his wife came with a mug of coffee in her hand.
She had heard the entire conversation.
With happiness in her voice
she told her son, “Son, you are very fortunate.
You have an extraordinary father, who is not angry even though he has
lost a lot of money. You should be proud
that your father is happy thinking somebody’s
child is healthy, rather
than worrying about his own big bonus. Learn from him. Help
people without expecting anything in return.”
