My 18-month old son must have missed our story telling session. For a week, we have been camping instead in our living room. Husband set up the boys’ old Spongebob tent for our little man. And for a week now, the tent has been in our living room as our baby prefers to play, sleep, and even eat inside.
Anyway, this morning, we read the story of The Dog and His Reflection. Let me share with you the story.
The Dog and His Reflection
Lesson from the dog and his reflection
A Dog, to whom the butcher had thrown a bone, was hurrying home with his prize as fast as he could go. As he crossed a narrow footbridge, he happened to look down and saw himself reflected in the calm water as if in a mirror. But the greedy Dog thought he saw a real Dog carrying a bone much bigger than his own.
If he had stopped to think he would have known better. But instead of thinking, he dropped his bone and sprang at the Dog in the river, only to find himself swimming for dear life to reach the shore. At last, he managed to scramble out, and as he stood sadly thinking about the good bone he had lost, he realized what a stupid Dog he had been.
The Elderly and the Spaghetti
The story of the Dog and His Reflection made me remember the incident my mom relayed to me weeks ago. My mother is a member of the Senior’s Group within our subdivision. Last February, she celebrated her birthday along with the other senior members. She bought two big baskets of spaghetti and loaves of bread. Nine others were celebrating their birthdays as well, thus food was overflowing.
Some senior members of the group volunteered to divide the food among members. Funny that though there was a surplus of food, those senior members only put a small portion of each dish on the plate leaving a great quality of leftovers for themselves. After the party, my mother and some elderly saw the big food containers full of food being carried by those volunteers. One senior lady told my mom that those volunteers are known for such act. My mother could not help but comment, “I thought they made sacrifices for us but in truth, they rob us of our food so they could have more food on their table. But they will remain poor because they choose to live in that kind of sinful lifestyle.”
Moral of the story
I have come to know one of the elderly persons my mom was referring to. When I was in temporary need of a household help, that woman worked for us. My husband though advised that we terminate her services the soonest possible because of trust issues.
Greed will bring nothing. Not content with what they have in life, some people grab things and opportunities they could have that make life even better. Or so they think. But the truth is, they are creating a bad name for themselves. They destroy people’s trust on them.
My little man may still be very young to understand the lesson of The Dog and His Reflection. But I will repeat the story to him, so he will not forget until the time comes he is old enough to comprehend everything. And I also pray to our dear Lord that may He guide my son’s parents that they not fall into greed’s trap.
This story is one of the favourites of my kid too.Recently we bought a book of same story in our recent visit to Sri Lanka.My kid wanted me to read the story again and again until he can recall the story! 🙂
Its great that you’ve shared the moral of the story at the end of the post.Yes,greed will bring nothing!
A simple story, a simple interpretation, but you know what? It depends on how far you want to take this lesson in life. The truth is that the story of the dog is true to many people in any situation in the real world.
Being a blogger, for instance, one of the things I do to help the community is to keep giving away advice, tips, guidance, on the blog or in private. At some point in time, it also got to me, which is why I have been relatively quiet on social media for the past months.
In the past, there is not a week that passes by when I receive messages from people asking for this and that, bloggers, network marketers, sales agents, etc.
But then I saw how few are really worth keeping. Most of the others, meanwhile, are the greedy dogs that they are.
Simple story but with great moral to understand at the end of it. My philosophy is simple, the more you give, the more you get. I seldom refrain from helping a poor or needy in a way that would actually benefit them. Poor, beggars and homeless are in abundance in our country and at every other turn you’ll find one. What we do is we keep packets of foods and items that we want to give away, in our car. When we see some such person, we give it off.
It’s common to compare yourself and your achievements to other. I think it has always been so for human. Maybe we could sometimes concentrate more on enjoying our achievements and targeting self-improvement instead of winning others. However little comparison and targeting getting what others have can sometimes be a motivator and good driver. I think this depends on person, some of us are more competitive than others.
This was my favorite story as a kid. I can clearly remember my mommy narrating it over and over whenever I would take my little cousin’s food! Haha. It just brings back sweet memories and fun ones too. I’m thankful for my mommy for re-telling this story to me all the time as it helped me be a better person for sure.
You’re a great mom! I knew that your son will be a great man someday. 🙂 Children’s stories are still good to hear even now that I’m an adult. It’s simple and holds so much lesson.
I can see how you see those greedy ones. There are a lot of people around us that becomes too competitive, too self-centered, all they care is to gain from others. It’s not really a good sight and quite a bad feeling to witness how someone can be too mercenary on you. As good Christians it will test the teaching for us to be more giving. I would also pray that I’ll be more compassionate whenever I’m surrounded with such lot. Your story is just fit to teach a young mind like your son the consequences of being greedy. Kudos to your efforts!
Such a great story – simple, but full of wisdom. Greed is such a plague. It breaks apart families, friendships, the whole work dynamics at the office – sometimes, you also become an unwilling participant. I applaud you for taking time to teach your son core values that need to be taught. We’ve become so superficial these days.
For the children, this story is just about the dog and his bone but for sure if you tell them the lesson, it will be inculcated in their mind. This is a simple but nice story to relay an important lesson. Being greedy won’t bring us anywhere.
Yes, couldn’t agree more. As I tell them stories, I would always ask them the lesson they learned from it. We exchange ideas and lessons learned.