Easy and hard

The director said:

• He keeps objecting to this and questioning that, and it annoys me. Give him a little money and send him away, to make things easier.
  The foreman went out in silence.
  That was twelve years ago. Now the company is in trouble: an inspection team has descended to check the wastewater systems at the paper mills. The results are very bad. If it is determined that there are serious violations of environmental hygiene standards, the company could be fined very heavily, so heavily that it would go bankrupt, and many people would lose their jobs.
  The director said angrily to the inspection team:
• Don't be so strict about the rules. Go on and fine us by the book of your regulations so that you can't be held responsible. But what will become of the lives of the company's 500 people? Do you have a conscience?
  The head of the inspection team said:
• I'm not well versed in conscience; I only follow the law.
• So you follow whatever law makes it easy for you and hard for us.
• Then if you have a better way, tell us, because at this level of fine the company will have to stop operating and 500 workers will lose their jobs. We feel very uneasy about it too.
  Suddenly the old foreman came in and whispered in the director's ear, inviting him outside for a private word. A moment later the director came back in, looking bright, and said:
• I propose that you inspect the effect of the wastewater on the surrounding environment. Taking wastewater right at the mouth of the discharge pipe is not enough to convict us of polluting the environment. The environment has not been polluted at all.
  The inspection team was surprised to hear this, put their heads together for a while and then went off to inspect further.
  Three days later the inspection team came back and concluded:
• Director, we inspected further down from the wastewater discharge pipe and unexpectedly found that the company had built a second wastewater treatment system 100 metres away, collecting all the discharge to filter it again before releasing it into the natural environment. The water treated a second time meets environmental hygiene standards. Therefore your company will not be penalised and can continue to operate normally. Many thanks for your colleagues' cooperation here.
  When the inspection team had all gone, the director called the old foreman and asked about everything. The old foreman told him:
• Twelve years ago the director told me to dismiss Hưng, for peace. Dismissing him was very easy. I felt sorry for him and took him home, fed him, sent him to school and brought him up. Five years ago he himself spoke about the environmental danger our company was causing and said that one day we would be inspected and heavily fined. I didn't understand much, but I pitied his orphaned state and often indulged him. He pleaded with me to buy 2,000 square metres of land 100 metres from the company, and then asked me for money to buy equipment of some kind. He dug and assembled for five whole months, haggard and thin. Afterwards he said he had found a way to catch the company's discharge flow and treat it again. I didn't know what it was all about and just smiled. I never expected that today he would save the company from disaster.
  The director said with regret:
• I remember that year, being annoyed by his habit of questioning this and that, I told you to dismiss him for peace. But you chose the harder way and took him home to bring him up. And he, having a real conscience, quietly built, on his own, a second wastewater treatment system for the company. Your money, his effort and intelligence. I deeply regret having chosen a way that was easy for me but hard for others. I send him my apology and respectfully invite him to join me as deputy director from next week 🤦‍♂️

Outlaw gangs also often choose the easy way: if someone doesn't suit them, they do away with them for peace. They never imagine that later, through grievance repaying grievance, all kinds of troubles will arise and bring terrible suffering.

A couple angry with each other divorce for ease, never imagining that after divorce there are countless difficulties.
A school punishes a problem student by expelling him, and later he meets only thugs on the street.
When we no longer use something, we throw it in the bin for ease, never imagining that later at sea we see rubbish washed up filling the beaches.
With a headache we take a painkiller for ease, never imagining that later the liver, kidneys and spine are all ruined.

Most easy ways of dealing with things make things hard for us later. If from the start we take the trouble to deal with them another way, more intelligently, more ethically, with more effort, then later we shall enjoy much joy and happiness.
We often choose the easy way for these reasons: first, we look shallowly and do not see the consequences later, that is, we use a bit too little brain. Second, we are angry and impulsive for the moment, so we are foolish in the short term and do wrong at that moment. Third, we have no time, so we deal with it hurriedly to get it over with.
Most hurried, easy ways of dealing with things go bad later. Especially matters concerning human affection, people's circumstances, the environment, personal responsibility: if dealt with hurriedly for ease, they will all go wrong.

We should try to endure hardship and find deep ways of dealing with problems, thinking of the end of life, of the next life, of many people, of the whole country, of the whole world, so that it is good for the long term.