A long time ago in China, a girl named Li-
Li got married and went to live with her
husband and mother-in-law.
In a very short time, Li-Li found that she
couldn’t get along with her mother-in-law at all. Their personalities were very
different, and Li-Li was angered by many
of her mother-in-law’s habits. In addition,
she criticized Li-Li constantly.
Days passed days, and weeks passed
weeks. Li-Li and her mother-in-law never stopped arguing and fighting. But what
made the situation even worse was that,
according to ancient Chinese tradition,
Li-Li had to bow to her mother-in-law and
obey her every wish. All the anger and
unhappiness in the house was causing the poor husband great distress.
Finally, Li-Li could not stand her mother-
in-law’s bad temper and dictatorship any
longer, and she decided to do something
about it.
Li-Li went to see her father’s good friend, Mr. Huang, who sold herbs. She told him
the situation and asked if he would give
her some poison so that she could solve
the problem once and for all. Mr. Huang
thought for a while, and finally said, “Li-Li,
I will help you solve your problem, but you must listen to me and obey what I tell
you.”
Li-Li said, “Yes, Mr. Huang, I will do
whatever you tell me to do.” Mr. Huang
went into the back room, and returned in
a few minutes with a package of herbs. He told Li-Li, “You can’t use a quick-
acting poison to get rid of your mother-in-
law, because that would cause people to
become suspicious. Therefore, I have
given you a number of herbs that will
slowly build up poison in her body. Every other day prepare some delicious meal
and put a little of these herbs in her
serving. Now, in order to make sure that
nobody suspects you when she dies, you
must be very careful to act very friendly
towards her. Don’t argue with her, obey her every wish, and treat her like a
queen.”
Li-Li was so happy. She thanked Mr.
Huang and hurried home to start her plot
of murdering her mother-in-law.
Weeks went by, months went by, and every other day, Li-Li served the specially
treated food to her mother-in-law. She
remembered what Mr. Huang had said
about avoiding suspicion, so she
controlled her temper, obeyed her
mother-in-law, and treated her like her own mother. After six months had
passed, the whole household had
changed.
Li-Li had practiced controlling her temper
so much that she found that she almost
never got mad or upset. She hadn’t had an argument in six months with her
mother-in-law, who now seemed much
kinder and easier to get along with.
The mother-in-law’s attitude toward Li-Li
changed, and she began to love Li-Li like
her own daughter. She kept telling friends and relatives that Li-Li was the
best daughter-in-law one could ever find.
Li-Li and her mother-in-law were now
treating each other like a real mother and
daughter.
Li-Li’s husband was very happy to see what was happening.
One day, Li-Li came to see Mr. Huang and
asked for his help again. She said, “Mr.
Huang, please help me to stop the
poison from killing my mother-in-law!
She’s changed into such a nice woman, and I love her like my own mother. I do
not want her to die because of the poison
I gave her.”
Mr. Huang smiled and nodded his head.
“Li-Li, there’s nothing to worry about. I
never gave you any poison. The herbs I gave you were vitamins to improve her
health. The only poison was in your mind
and your attitude toward her, but that has
been all washed away by the love which
you gave to her.”
Moral: Friends, have you ever realized that in
most of the cases, how you treat others is
exactly how they will treat you (Most of
the times)? In China it is said: The
person who loves others will also be
loved. Kindness is a reaction. Starting from
today, try to be kind to EVERYBODY,
even your ENEMIES!
- Author Unknown
