By Paulo Coelho
Jean was out walking with his grandfather in Paris. At one point, they saw a shoemaker being insulted by a customer who claimed that there was something wrong with his shoes. The shoemaker calmly listened to his complaints, apologised and promised to make good the mistake.
Jean and his grandfather stopped to have a coffee. At the next table, the waiter asked a man if he would mind moving his chair slightly so that he could get by. The man erupted in a torrent of abuse and refused to move.
‘Never forget what you have seen,’ said Jean’s grandfather. ‘The shoemaker accepted the customer’s complaint, while this man next to us did not want to move. Men who perform some useful task are not bothered if they are treated as if they were useless, but men who do no useful work at all always think themselves very important and hide their incompetence behind their authority.’
Welcome to Share with Friends - Free Texts for a Free Internet
Very right indeed! Next time I see a person scream for doing someting, I will know that he doesn’t do useful things.
I do not know whether The Alchemist is a Personal Destiny, A Fairy Tale or a Peronal Bliss.
All I know is that the story gave me back my soul, direction in life, exubarant inner joy and a mild reckognition of my innermost true being.
mb
The thing here is that Jean saw the shoes of the Waiter…they were from the same shop, but they were for Sunday best, not for working in…only the waiter had worn out his work shoes and couldn’t afford another pair, and so asked the customer (which is beyond Waiting etiquette, anyway.) to move for him…and the customer just happened to be the Cobbler, who was having a quiet lunch break away from miserable bad tempered customers….see how the world rubs off on people??
All things ‘goes around and comes around’
Positive and negative energy included.
Love all
“Men who perform some useful task are not bothered if they are treated as if they were useless, but men who do no useful work at all always think themselves very important and hide their incompetence behind their authority.”.
I printed it and put it on the board
That is a really good point, I never looked at it this way but after doing so I do think it is very much the truth! :)
humbleness is achieved by greater understanding of life.
the energy spent by the cobbler is in fact lesser than the shouting customer.
this is the secret of acheiving more with less,
this was what jesus meant by feeding all the poor,
when is your next book due sir?
bo0om
Dearest Paulo,
I enjoyed reading this story. Its very true what some people think of themselves, above others mostly for material reasons, such a looks or material wealth. Personally i feel the most important thing is the person inside regardless of anything. It wouldn’t hurt people to be nice to others, whether he be a shoemaker or a waiter or even a begger on the street. No one is above anyone else. Today, i went to a supermarket. There was an old lady working at the deli, and you could see, she was tired and worn out from a long day at work. My brother was trying get some good service, and asked for a number of things. You could see that the lady was annoyed being put back to work, and rushed through our order. As we left, my father said wait.. And he went back with me, he told the lady to look at me, that one day i’l be a doctor, at a hospital nearby, and i’l make sure she will be taken care of. This old lady’s eyes suddenly began to sparkle, and she began to smile. She said she’l remember me. And she thanked me. It probably had been a strenuous day for her, and just us going back, to say, we care, made an old lady so happy. I think that the greatest gift in life is giving. To know, your making someone else happy, even if its for a moment.
Thank you for being.
Yajna
i remember what my father said when he learned that my brother was being bullied at school. he said we must pray for the boy who was bullying him, because he exhibits what is happening in the boy’s home. i was a little confused that time (i was in secondary school), and i can tell that that event created a crease with how my brother interacts with my parents now. some of us are uncomfortable with the virtue of humility because we’re afraid we will be labeled as cowards.
So true. Some people just can’t take to be stand corrected. They seem to think that such act is an insult, or as if they’re being humiliated, and lessens the value of their personality.
Whereas, others are thankful for the known mistake and take the chance of being near to perfection should he encounters such experience again.
“He who is humble is confident and wise. He who brags is insecure and lacking.”~Lisa Edmondson
Ginger P.
Hola, felcitaciones por el ser de luz que es usted… Soy de Venezuela y estoy en busca de uno de sus articulos que se publican en el periodico el nacional en la revista “todo en domingo”. El nombre del artículo es 25 BOLITAS yo los colecciono pero me hace falta este en especial, por favor si me lo hace llegar sin importar que no este en español. Muchisimas Gracias. Espero su respuesta le dejo mi email..