(Minghui.org) The following stories are about elderly fellow practitioners around me.
I. A Bag of Rice
Elderly practitioner B's youngest daughter and her cousin went to visit their grandparents. On their way back, they saw a bag of rice on the road. They were just eight or nine years old at the time and had to spend quite some effort to pick up the bag and put it on their bike, and then they took turns to push the bike. They were both tired and sweaty when they got home and happily told fellow practitioner B about it. B said to them, “We cannot keep this rice and we need to find out who has lost it.” The kids were very unhappy. At the time they were quite poor and couldn't afford to always have rice. Fellow practitioner B patiently explained to the kids, “We are Falun Gong cultivators and Teacher has taught us to think of others first. So think about it, wouldn't the person who has lost it be very worried? We have to listen to Teacher.” The kids understood it and agreed. But how could they find out who had lost it? In the end, they went to talk to the school's principal, who wrote a “lost and found” notice for them. Soon after they put up the notice, the owner came and he was very touched and thanked them again and again. Fellow practitioner B told him, “We are Falun Gong practitioners and this is what our Teacher taught us to do. You can thank him for it.”
II. A Piece of Land
Elderly fellow practitioner C has a piece of land. After her husband passed away, their neighbor seized it as their own. Fellow practitioner C's daughter-in-law found out and went to speak to the neighbor but the neighbor insisted that it belonged to them. The daughter-in-law came back and asked C, “Who does it belong to anyway?” C said, “Don't bother with it. Just let them have it.” Just like this, she let the neighbor have the land with a smile on her face.
Afterward, she said, “It is because I practice Falun Gong, I can suffer losses, knowing exactly what is going on, and with my heart not moved at all. Otherwise, I would not be able to do this.”
III. Returning Change
Elderly practitioner D went to a small shop to buy candy with the children. The shop's owner was playing mahjong at the time, so he gave the kids the change in a hurry and returned to the game table. Fellow practitioner D looked at the change and saw that it was incorrect. They got two bags of candy but the owner only took the money for one bag. D said to the owner, “You got the change wrong.” The owner was very annoyed because it was distracting him from playing mahjong, and he thought that he had shortchanged them. He angrily said, “What is wrong?” D calmly explained to him, “You gave us too much.”
Later D told the owner that he wouldn't do things like this if he didn't practice Falun Gong. The owner admired Falun Gong practitioners a lot after this.
IV. Neighbor's Pumpkin Plant Had Pumpkins in the Practitioner's Yard
Practitioner D's neighbor is over 70 years old. For the past 15 or 16 years, every year the lady's pumpkin plants grew over into D's yard. Every time D's daughter-in-law came to visit, she suggested that they toss the pumpkin seedlings back into the neighbor's yard. But D said, “She is over 70 and just lives alone. It's quite for difficult for her. If we throw the pumpkins seedlings over, it probably won't grow any pumpkins for her. Let's just keep them here.”
Last year the pumpkin plants spread all the way across 2/3 of the yard. D told the neighbor to lift the pumpkin plant on top of the chicken coup so that it would not run out of space to climb. In the fall, there were seven or eight big pumpkins that ended up in D's yard and D returned all of them to the neighbor. The neighbor was very touched.
Category: Improving Oneself
