Repaying a kindness

A plainly dressed man walks back and forth asking after the family of Mr. Bảy Tín. After a lot of asking, someone points him to the home of the son. Mr. Bảy Tín died ten years ago. The house is simple. The son lives there with his wife and two nice-looking children. Holding a cup of tea, the visitor says:

"Fifteen years ago I passed through here and got to know your father. This time I had a chance to come back, and your father has passed away. I'm very sorry. The house has been repaired, so I didn't recognize it. So you took over your father's trade as a carpenter. You were so small then that I don't remember you well."

The son chats cheerfully about all sorts of things, the village up the road and down, then invites the guest to stay for dinner. The whole family gathers, and the two children, a boy and a girl, eat with them.

The guest asks:

"How is business? Do you earn enough to live on?"

"Orders are few these days, uncle. People buy a lot of ready-made furniture made from engineered wood, so it's hard for traditional carpenters."

"Do you have any plan for growing? With sales this slow, how will you feed the children?"

"I'd like to move into engineered wood, but it takes a huge amount of capital and a very large workshop. We're poor, so who would lend to us? I can't do anything about it."

"Did your father leave you nothing when he died?"

"He did, but it's something we're keeping for someone else."

The guest holds his rice bowl with trembling hands and asks:

"What did your father leave?"

"My father left a locked chest. He told me that when someone comes who can describe its shape exactly, I should return it to them, and never, ever open it to look."

The guest eats the rest of his meal in silence.

After dinner, the guest says he is tired and stays the night. Late in the night he asks the host to speak with him in private. The host leads him down to a secret cellar and points to the old chest, untouched.

Before dawn, the guest carries the chest away, and everything goes back to normal. But three months later strangers come to meet him, give the host capital, bring a lawyer to guide him through the papers and permits of all kinds to open a workshop making engineered-wood products, and arrange customers for it as well. He becomes rich, and still does not know why.

The stranger never comes back, but a letter is placed in the host's own hands. It says:

"Fifteen years ago I was in trouble and fled into your father's house. He hid me and treated me. I asked him to keep my family treasure chest. I did not even hope to get it back. I never expected him to keep his word. You are special too, for obeying your father so fully and keeping the chest for me. You do not need to know what the chest contains. You only need to know that I am repaying your father and you. You deserve to be rich because you are so honest. But I advise you to keep this secret from everyone, your wife included. If you tell, your property will vanish in a fire and no one in your family will get out. Goodbye. P.S. We could have been friends for years to come, but you are not strong enough to be my friend."

Before the host can make sense of the letter, the words disappear on their own, and the paper crumbles into powder and blows away.

Remembering a kindness and repaying it is very hard. Most people remember very clearly what they did for others, and not what others did for them. That is human instinct, and hard to blame. When we meet someone who once helped us, we should understand how they feel: they remember their help to us very clearly. Understanding that, we can treat them so they are not saddened. We show sincerely that we are very grateful, and that is all it takes to make them glad.

When we meet someone we helped and find them cool toward us, we should not be surprised. That is just the natural instinct. They do not remember it clearly, which looks like ingratitude, but it is not meant as ingratitude. Be understanding and do not bring up the past. If they remember, good. If not, let it be.

As for those of us who have chosen moral cultivation as our way of life, we should try to be grateful, remember kindness and look for chances to repay it. Remembering the kindness we owe others can weigh on the mind, but do not forget it. Sometimes our benefactor has turned into a bad person and it is hard to be close to them, but we must still bear the debt and find a way to repay it.

A person who repays kindness feels light of heart and does not dare to do wrong. Many other virtues grow with it.