24. My Experience Working in a Chinese Restaurant

  By a Chinese practitioner in the U.S.   

  I started working in a Chinese restaurant at the beginning of the year 2000. here were all kinds of people with different backgrounds there. One of my classmates who was familiar with the people working in this restaurant told me in advance about who was a thief, who I needed to be wary of and so forth. I thought this would be of no concern for a genuine Falun Dafa practitioner who could easily handle it. What I could do was to change the environment around me.   

  The workers in the restaurant usually rested right after they finished their duties, never thinking of helping others. When I started working there, I helped others every day. hey asked me why I did this. I told them that I practiced Falun Dafa and learned from Dafa that I should consider others first in any situation. hey were surprised and deeply moved. Since then, the practice of specifying duties to each helper in the restaurant has stopped because of the harmonious relationship among the employees and the fact that everybody is willing to help others. Conflicts between co-workers have also become fewer and fewer.   

  Some Chinese workers at the restaurant who had recently arrived in America could not drive, so I drove them to work and back home every day. Some colleagues tried to persuade me not to do such a "stupid" thing. I said, "If they didn't do this to earn a living, nobody would do these heavy and dirty jobs. We can¨t just think of ourselves all the time. We also need to consider others." After this conversation, my co-workers kept silent.   

  A customer who frequently visited our restaurant never let tips. As a result, neither the manager nor the employees were friendly towards him. But I treated him the same way as I treated the other customers. Surprisingly, he gave me a two-dollar tip. All of my colleagues were stunned. I told them, "Everyone has a compassionate mind. If we did not think of getting as much money as possible from the customer's pocket, the situation would change." My colleagues' minds became less occupied with money since then and business in the restaurant got better. he manager said that I brought good fortune to the restaurant.   

  Whenever I had a chance, I would introduce Dafa and clarify the truth of Dafa to them. A 40-year-old man who used to be a department director of a university in Shanghai had to work in this restaurant because he could not find another job due to his poor English. Nobody talked with him because they suspected that he was not a good person. I thought I should be responsible for everybody around me, so I introduced Dafa to him. To my surprise, he was immediately interested in knowing the truth of Falun Dafa. I gave him a Dafa book, and since then, I noticed that he has turned out to be a generous person.   

  Three months later, my husband found a job with good pay, so I did not have to work in that restaurant anymore. Everybody was very sad when I let. hey said they would like to work with me if I would run a restaurant someday. The manager and his wife also told me that they would help me whenever I needed it. he chef, whom I had barely talked with, said, "I have worked here for more than ten years, but I have never met such a kind and good person like you."   

  I used to be very sensitive about my reputation. If I did not practice Falun Dafa, I would not have accepted a waitress job in a restaurant without complaining. Because of Dafa, I did not feel any fatigue after working hard all day. It is Falun Dafa that created a new life for me, gave me strength and helped me to discard all kinds of bad notions that are part of many people's lives.