A middle class hard working guy owned a horse. One day, while he was passing through the forest on his horse, he was stopped by an ailing poor man. The poor man wanted a ride.
Moved by his condition, the horse owner stopped, climbed down and with great effort placed the ailing man on top of the horse.
At that very instant, the ailing man threw his cloak away to show that he was indeed a robber. Just as he prepared to run away with the horse, the owner stopped him and said
Do me a favor. Don’t ever share this story with anyone.
Why so?
Because then no one will ever stop to help a poor man again.
There are a lot of human traits that I cannot stand. Cynicism is one of them.
I have lied
I have cheated
I have broken rules
I have been unfair
I have been judgmental
Buy I rarely will be accused of being cynical. Because it’s so fundamentally against my worldview that to win you have got to trust others.
The story above is from school. I don’t even remember which class, perhaps 4th or 5th. But it’s somehow stayed with me so far.
It’s a fascinating reflection of how we operate in our lives, choosing to not trust people because of our experiences or worse still that of others.
The opposite of being cynical is not being gullible! It’s trust. The belief that the basic instinct of every human is to mean no harm.
Innocent until proven guilty
Try it once