Story：Fair distribution
【明報專訊】Once upon a time, there was a kingdom where both wealthy cities and extremely poor villages coexisted. Those villages did not have enough food, water and medical supplies. The villagers were worried that there'd soon be famine and plague one day.
This day finally came.
The king was very troubled by the famine and drought in the country, and was especially concerned about the situation in the poor villages. He ordered the rich cities to donate supplies to help the poor villages, but the rich shook their heads, saying that they had no responsibility to help. The king was kind-hearted. Puzzled, he thought that the rich had extra food and water and should donate them.
One rich man owned a factory in a poor village. It manufactured clothing. He often inspected the factory. The reason why he set it up in a poor village was because of the low salary expenditure. This time he was unwilling to visit his own workshop because he didn't want to meet the poor. However, due to the economic downturn, he needed to lay all of them off.
On his way to the impoverished village, he was unfortunately beaten and robbed. Worse, his servants left him alone and ran away. Brighter and hotter, the sun shone fiercely down on his face, baking him dry and torturing every inch of his body. The earth was also sun-baked and the wealthy businessman could only wait and suffer.
At the time when he thought he was dying, a shabby and unkempt man passed by. The businessman was a bit shocked, suspecting that he might be another robber. He comforted himself immediately, thinking that he was now penniless anyway. Unexpectedly, the poor man stretched out his dirty hand to help him. The poor man also took out a bottle of water and some slices of bread from his dilapidated bag. The businessman never thought that a poor passer-by would help him. He felt very ashamed. When the poor man helped him back to the factory, the businessman didn't fire anyone but announced that allowances would be distributed to every worker.
He learned his lesson, and was accompanied by the poor man, who wanted to help him admonish the king to gather the wealth from the country's rich so as to revitalise the economy. The businessman was quite a big name, so other rich people and nobles all responded and donated their money. Soon, money and resources fastly accumulated and far exceeded the amount the poor needed.
(by Ian Lam)
◆Food for thought
It is more blessed to give than to receive. Do you agree with this proverb?
■Gear up
Circle the correct answers after reading the above story.
(1)The poor man the businessman meets on the road to his factory is (selfish/generous/wicked).
(2) The businessman's servants leave him alone and run away because they want to (rescue the businessman/be rich/escape).
(3) The businessman's factory produces (clothes/food/medical supplies).
(Answers on next text)
■Glossary
famine (n) 饑荒
plague (n) 瘟疫
inspect (v) 視察
admonish (v) 力勸
[Smarties' Power English 第303期]
