Gems

An elderly teacher boarded the bus on a hot summer day. She was suffering from pain in her legs. After not seeing a spare seat in the bus, she somehow stood up.

The bus had just covered some distance when another elderly woman stood up and called out to her very respectfully, "Come madam, you sit here". She gave up her seat to the old teacher. The poor woman herself stood in the bus. The teacher smiled and said, "Thank you very much, I was really in a bad condition."

A happy smile spread on the face of the poor woman who was now standing.

After some time, the seat beside the teacher became vacant. But the old woman kept standing and gave the seat to another woman, who was travelling with a small child and was barely able to carry the child.

At another stop, the mother and her child also left the bus and the seat became vacant again, but the good-natured woman did not feel tempted to sit.

A weak old man boarded the bus and sat on the spare seat.

The seat beside the elderly teacher with painful legs became vacant. Now the teacher made the woman sit beside her and asked, "How many times has the seat become vacant but you kept making people sit and did not sit yourself, what's the matter?"

The woman said, "Madam, I am a labourer, I don't have enough money to donate any money to help other less fortunate people. So what I do is I pick up stones from the road and throw them aside, to make it safer for the people walking there. Sometimes I give water to a needy person. Sometimes I give up my seat for someone in the bus, then when the person thanks me and blesses me for helping them, I forget my poverty. The tiredness of the day goes away.

Also, when I go to eat my bread in the afternoon, and I sit outside on the bench, the birds come and sit nearby. I cut some of my bread into small pieces and give it to them. When they sing with joy, my stomach gets filled seeing those creatures of God be happy."

The old teacher was stunned, because of the illiterate looking woman who had been taught such a big lesson in life.

If half the people of the world adopt such thinking then the earth would become like heaven.

DONATION IS NOT DONE WITH MONEY BUT WITH THE HEART.