A newly enrolled monk from a Buddhist monastery was on his first day to get alms (known as Bhiksha in Vedic literature) from the neighbourhood. People gave him fruits, food grains and other essentials. On reaching the last house, he encounters a woman who refuses to give him any alms. She shuts the gate on his face and asks him to go back. On reaching back to the monastery, this monk goes to his master to share about his first day of collecting alms. He starts with his experience with the lady from the last house. The monk narrates to his Master about how he was ill-treated by this one lady and how all others were good to him. On listening to this complaint from the young monk, the master offers to join him for alms collection the following day.
Now on day two, both the monk and his master start collecting alms from the same neighbourhood. As expected, everything goes well till they reach the last house, and there as expected the lady from the last house refuses to give any alms. This time the master requests the lady to give the dirty mud from her front yard. Seeing no harm or material loss, the lady quickly agrees to do so. The young monk has several questions in his mind but holds on from asking them to his master till they reach back to the monastery.
...the master requests the lady to give the dirty mud from her front yard. Seeing no harm or material loss, the lady quickly agrees to do so.
You see that lady had never experienced giving and the joy of it ever in her life...
After giving a glass of water to his master, the monk sits beside the master and asks why he did what he did. The master very calmly says, "You see that lady had never experienced giving and the joy of it ever in her life, thus it was important to give her that experience. By giving us that dirty mud from her front yard she has now experienced how it feels to give something to someone. She has gotten the joy of giving, the way of being Generous."
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