Week 15: Amusing Yourself At The Expense Of Others

A student was one day taking a walk with a professor, who was very kind to his students. As they went along, they saw lying in the path a pair of old shoes, which belonged to a poor man working in the field close by. The student turned to the professor, saying, “Let’s hide his shoes, and hide ourselves behind those bushes, and wait to see his perplexity when he cannot find them.” “My dear friend,” answered the professor, “we should never amuse ourselves at the expense of the poor. But you are rich, and may give yourself a much greater pleasure by means of this poor man. Put a crown into each shoe, and then we will hide ourselves and watch how the discovery affects him.” The student did so, and they both then placed themselves behind the bushes close by. The poor man soon finished his work, and came to the path where he had left his shoes. He slipped his foot into oen of the his shoes, feeling something hard, he stooped down to feel what is was, and found the crown. Astonishment and wonder were seen upon his face. He gazed upon the coin, turned it around, and looked at it again nd again. He then looked around him on all sides, but no person was in sight. He now put the money into his pocket, and proceeded to put on the other shoe; yet his suruprise was doubled on finding the other crown. His feelings overcame him; he felt upon his keens, looked up to heaven and utterned aloudn a fervent thanksgiving, in which he spoke of his wife, sick and helpless, and his children whithout bread, whom this timely bounty, from some unknown hand, would save from perishing. The student stood there deeply affected, and his eyes filled with tears. “Now,” said the professor, “are you not much better peased than if you had played your intended trick?” the yough replied, “You have taught me a lesson which I will never forget. I feel now the truth of these words, which I never understood before, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

From A Miscellany of English Writing (Tsu Foo, Shanghai: The Mercury Press, 1941)

1. Have you ever amused yourselves at the expense of others? Give examples.
2. If you were the professor, will you stop your student to amuse himself at the expense of the poor? Why or why not?
3. If you were the farmer, what would you do after you found the first crown? What would you react when you found the second?
4. Do you believe “It is more blessed to give than to receive”? Why or why not?

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