A Glass of Water

It was a hot day and a young man was selling books to raise money for his college fund. He went to a house and knocked on the door. An older lady answered the door. The young man told her that he was raising money for a college fund. Then he asked her if she would like to buy some books. The older lady replied by saying that she wasn’t very good at reading and she didn’t want to buy any books. He said, “That’s okay.”

The young man asked if he could trouble her for a glass of water. She said, “No problem, come inside and sit down.” She went into the kitchen and came back out with some milk and cookies. She said, “Rest for a bit. It looks like you’ve been working hard all day.”

He sat there and talked a awhile and then he had to get back to work sell some books. He asked for her name and she told it was Mary Brothwell. He thanked her for her generosity and he left.

Twenty years went by and Mary Brothwell was very sick and ended up in the hospital with cancer. She had to go through a complicated surgery. The had to bring in a special surgeon from Florida to do the surgery. The surgery went very well. Mary and her husband got an envelope from the surgeon and they did not have enough money to pay for the surgery. They were devastated and thought that they would have to sell the farm. Mary’s husband opened the envelope and saw that it was the bill and they saw page after page of hospital expenses. Thirteen pages later they finally saw the total and saw that it was going to cost them everything they would have to sell the farm. Then they both started crying. They looked a little bit further and there was a note that said paid in full buy a glass of milk and some cookies.

The moral of this story is this. Be generous and kind because you never know when you are going to need help. Generosity will always pay you back in a much bigger way.

Anonymous