When to speak your mind and mind your speech

A sage presented a prince with a set of three small dolls. The prince was amused.

“Am I a girl that you give me dolls?”, he asked.

“This is a gift for a future king,” Said the sage. “If you look carefully, you’ll see a hole in the ear of each doll.”

The sage handed him a piece of string. “Pass it through each doll.” – He said.

Intrigued, the prince picked up the first doll and put the string into the ear. It came out from the other ear. 

“This is one type of person,” said the sage, “whatever you tell him, comes out from the other ear. He doesn’t retain anything.”

The prince put the string into the second doll. It came out from the mouth. “This is the second type of person,” said the sage, “whatever you tell him, he tells everybody else.”

The prince picked up the third doll and repeated the process. The string did not come out. “This is the third type of person,” said the sage, “whatever you tell him is locked up within him. It never comes out.”

“What is the best type of person?”, asked the prince.

The sage handed him a fourth doll, in answer. When the prince put the string into the doll, it came out from the other ear.

“Do it again,” said the sage.

The prince repeated the process. This time the string came out from the mouth. When he put the string in a third time, it did not come out at all.

“This is the best type of person,” said the sage. “To be trustworthy, a man must know when not to listen, when to remain silent and when to speak out.”

Four important things to remember:

1. When to speak

2. What to speak

3. Whom to speak &

4. When NOT to speak

There can be no place for violence when there is love

Two friends were walking through the desert. At some point of the journey they had an argument, and the first friend slapped the other one in the face. The second one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, he wrote in the sand:

TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The second friend who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the first friend saved him. This time his friend wrote on a stone: 

TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE.

The first friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, “When I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now when I saved you, you write on a stone. Why?” 

The second friend replied, “When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand because winds of forgiveness can erase it completely. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where nothing can ever erase it.”

“When someone does something wrong, don’t forget all the things they did right.”