Modesty

The story-- "Timothy's Mother"

“Modesty keeps us free from pride. It saves us from anger. What cannot be done with force, can be done with modesty. Modesty gifts us success in life.”

 

Once upon a time, there lived a mother and a son. Timothy, the son, was so lazy that he hardly studied his lessons. Mrs Paine, his mother, was ever anxious about her son.

Days went over. Timothy was growing up, but he did not like to study his lessons at all. There was not a single day on which he did not get a good thrashing from his mother.

Anyway, Mrs Paine was tired of thrashing his son. How could she bring her son to the right track in this way?

She thought over the matter for a long time. After pondering much, she came to realise that she was getting outraged unnecessarily. Nothing could be done in this way. Rearing a child was next to impossible. She, then, changed her track of mind. She wondered, “If I thrash him again and again, what will he learn from me? I myself need to be modest. Only then, he will know the sweetness of modesty.”

From that very day, she used to stop beating the child. She started advising him in a modest way, sometimes by patting on his head, sometimes by drawing him close to her heart. Miraculously, in this way, day by day, Timothy got changed completely. He was changed into a nice student, and what is more, a very good human being.