Monday 11 February 2008

Love? Wealth? or Success?

A woman came out of her house and saw 3 old men with long white beards sitting in her front yard. She did not recognize them. She said "I don't think I know you, but you must be hungry. Please come in and have something to eat."

"Is the man of the house home?", they asked.

"No", she replied. "He's out." "Then we cannot come in", they replied.

In the evening when her husband came home, she told him what had happened.

"Go tell them I am home and invite them in!"

The woman went out and invited the men in"

" We do not go into a House together," they replied.

"Why is that?" she asked.

One of the old men explained: "His name is Wealth," he said pointing to one of his friends, and said pointing to another one, "He is Success, and I am Love." Then he added, "Now go in and discuss with your husband which one of us you want in your home."

The woman went in and told her husband what was said. Her husband was overjoyed. "How n ice!!", he said. "Since that is the case, let us invite Wealth. Let him come and fill our home with wealth!"

His wife disagreed. "My dear, why don't we invite Success?"

Their daughter was listening from the other corner of the house. She jumped in with her own suggestion: "Would it not be better to invite Love? Our home will then be filled with love!"

"Let us heed our daughter's advice," said the husband to his wife.

"Go out and invite Love to be our guest ."

The woman went out and asked the 3 old men, "Which one of you is Love? Please come in and be our guest."

Love got up and started walking toward the house. The other 2 also got up and followed him. Surprised, t he lady asked Wealth and Success: "I only invited Love, Why are you coming in?"

The old men replied together: "If you had invited Wealth or Success, the other two of us would've stayed out, but since you invited Love, wherever He goes, we go with him. Wherever there is Love, there is also Wealth and Success !!!!!!"

Courtesy Isbah

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The story is nice however the correlation between the three is not so simple.. it depends wat are the parameters of wealth & success for the lovebirds ...for some may be a cottage is enuff and for others castles won't b enuff !!!

Anonymous said...

I think this was a lovely article!

Isbah Omer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Isbah Omer said...

This incident reminds me of one of an extract from Shakespeare's 'The Rape of Lucrece':

What win I, if I gain the thing I seek?
A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy.
Who buys a minute's mirth to wail a week?
Or sells eternity to get a toy?
For one sweet grape who will the vine destroy?

When dealing with our lives, we keep on searching for a minute's mirth (pleasures) and choose to pay credit for it for days to come. We have forgotten the value of innocence and replaced it with lust for materials, textures and fabrics. The desire for more and more inhibits us from finding true virtues that can shape our lives and help us remember the true meaning of words called friendship, happiness, love, and respect.

Syra said...

Without love, success and wealth become meaningless at a point.

Ethereal said...

"Well-being and happiness never appeared to me as an absolute aim. I am even inclined to compare such moral aims to the ambitions of a pig."
-Albert Einstein