This is a real life experience related by my dad to me one fine night. I jotted it down and made up into a story as best as I can. My dad is the narrator.

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I was sitting with my father along with my brothers. We were very poor and were very lucky if we got anything to eat for supper at all. One day, we were fortunate enough to get a bowl of rice soup each for supper. By the time we were starting, we heard a knock at the door. My father opened the door and there stood a very weak and thin man shivering with cold. He begged for some food.

My father, without saying anything to him or to us, welcomed him in and poured a fraction of soup from each of our bowls into another bowl and offered it to him. He drank it with much gratitude. Finishing it and then praising, blessing and thanking us with all his heart, he went away.

Naturally, out of curiosity, we all asked father who he was. Our father replied:

“Children, I’ve started working for my livelihood since I was five years old. And one day, when I was so full of hunger and exhaustion, I went and begged one of the owners of the shop for some food. He treated me very kindly. Instead of giving me food, he gave me five or six lashes with his whip and made me run for my life. And do you know what is the most interesting thing that has happened to me over the past few years? It happened just now. The man whom I gave food to just now was that shop owner’s son.”