By Paulo Coelho
There is a legend in the region of Punjab, about a thief who broke into a farm and stole two hundred onions. But before he could make his escape, he was caught by the farmer and led before the judge.
The magistrate past sentence: the payment of ten gold pieces. But the man alleged that the fine was too high, so the judge offered him two alternatives: to be whipped twenty times, or eat the two hundred onions.
The thief chose to eat the two hundred onions. When he had eaten twenty-five, his eyes were already filled with tears, and his stomach was burning up like the fires of hell. Since there were still 175 to go, and he knew he would never bear this punishment, he begged to be thrashed twenty times.
The judge agreed. But when the whip tore into his back for the tenth time, he implored for the punishment to be stopped, for he could not stand the pain. His wish was granted, but the thief still had to pay the ten pieces of gold.
- If you had accepted the fine, you would have avoided eating the onions and wouldn’t have suffered with whip - said the judge.
- But you preferred the more difficult path, not understanding that, when you have done wrong, it is better to pay up quickly and forget the matter.
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That’s what happens when someone wants to get away with crime.
I wander why sometimes people think it’s possible, when actually it’s never possible.
It doesn’t matter how, but you will always pay for it.
If not with the fine, you’ll pay for it with your conscious, of course if someone has a conscious, if one didn’t lose it along the way…called life.
And if not even in this life, you’ll pay for it after..
love
Agnieszka
Dear paulo,
that reminds me working for a company. How often do people try to evade costs and invest in cheaper solutions until they pay the invetiable price in the end.
This is a wise story.
There is a double meaning in the story that I can summarize with two very popular English sayings “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime” and “you either pay me, or you will pay me later” There’s no escaping personal responsibility.
I just wanted to say “Hello”
i dont believe in punishment… i believe in love..if someone showed the criminals howit is to be loved, and see the world with different eyes, then this world would be different…
I’m sorry Annie I mean no disrespect, I can see you’re a genuine nice person, but in my opinion a bit idealistic and naive. Children need love even when they misbehave, because this may be a form of reaching out, they may be acting out of fear. But they also need discipline; the main purpose of raising children is to create fully functional and contributing citizens of tomorrow. A harden criminal needs to suffer the consequences of his/her actions or else society will become a total chaos. That doesn’t mean we dehumanize them, or that they don’t deserve love, but love alone will not reform the criminal. Punishment even in small children sends the correct message, you can’t operate outside the norms of society (or in case of children outside the norm of the family) unless of course you leave in an unjust society then you may act against the establishment for what you believe is right, but this would not be without consequences. When you choose the behavior, you choose the consequences and there will always be consequences. It’s the law of physics “for every action there an equal (in force) and opposite (in direction), reaction.”
“…when you have done wrong, it is better to pay up quickly and forget the matter.” This is truly enlightening. More often than not, people tend to find other ways to make up for the wrong that was done instead of facing it and taking responsibility. Truly enlightening!
He wanted everything but didn’t want to pay for it, now he had to pay everything and more and gets nothing.
Having to pay ten gold pieces was probably the hardest sentence for him because that meant that he had to acknowledge to himself what he did and that with what he had to pay now, he easily could have obtained what he wanted in the first place.
He tried to avoid looking at himself in the mirror because sometimes that’s the hardest thing to do…
Love,
Vicky
Hello to you too Ivan
Yes, true.
and this applies on everything we do on our life and work, we need to forget our mistakes, to focus on what’s good things we can do next.