Its always great to refresh one's mind and learn something new by re reading a story or snippet that made an impact on you the vey first time you heard it ( or as the case may be, read it.)
So here's one such gem with some real Food For Thought. Called 'The Ninety Nine Club', I'm fairly certain that it will impact you exactly the way it impacted me.
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| ( Image Courtesy- The Ninety Club, London) |
Once upon a time there was a King who ruled over a large kingdom. He had everything that he could possibly desire and then some. Anything he touched seemed to turn into gold and whatever he thought of or desired, he could buy.
But human beings are after all -just humans. Every morning he would step out and go for a brisk walk in his beautiful gardens and he would see a gardener busy at work. Not a day passed when the King didn't see him smiling and humming a happy song and after some time, this began to bother him.
He called one of his wisest Ministers and shared his dilemma."There is a particular gardener who works for me. Every morning when I pass by, I see him smiling and humming a happy song. I have so much more than him, but somehow, I don't think I'm happy. You see, I'm never really able to hum and sing in a carefree manner I have everything I can think of so I can't help but wonder why he can behave that way and I can't ?"
The wise Minister replied, "Don't worry your Majesty, leave it all to me and you will soon see a different person." And with that, he smiled enigmatically and set off to do what he had planned.
Late that night, he went and dropped a red silk pouch with gold coins in front of the gardener's cottage and walked away. Next morning when the gardener came out, he saw the pouch and bent down to pick it up. It felt heavy and what was even more intriguing, it made a jingling sound when he shook it. Curiosity soon got the better of him and he opened it. Imagine his excitement when he saw that it was full of gold coins!
He started counting. 'One, two, three......ninety seven, ninety eight, ninety nine....
Ninety nine? How can that be possible? It has to be a hundred"
And so he started all over again.
"One, two, three........ninety seven, ninety eight, ninety nine.."
When the King saw him at work that morning, the gardener wasn't smiling.
Or humming...
Or working...
Instead he was frowning, squinting furiously and counting something that seemed to make a jingling sound in a red coloured silk pouch.
The wise Minister approached the King as he stood there looking at him and said,
"You see, Your Majesty, this man is now officially a member of the Ninety Nine Club."
