Do You Have A Torch at Home?

Joyce was an office lady living by herself. Due to recent financial crisis, she moved from her unit in the City to a small apartment in a lower rank suburb. Her neighbour next door was a single mum with a young daughter. In this apartment, people usually close their doors and seldom talked with each other. So Joyce didn't know her neighbours very well.
One morning when Joyce left home for work, she saw in the lift lobby a notice saying there would be a 2-hour power outage in the evening for maintenance. Joyce remembered that she didn't have any torch at home. So she bought two torches before returning home as preparation for the outage.
After Joyce had supper that evening, the doorbell rang. Joyce opened the door. It was the little girl living next door. The little girl asked, "Miss, do you have a torch at home?" Joyce thought the little girl might have come to borrow a torch from her for the power outage. She further thought in her mind, "Are they really so poor that they couldn't buy their own?" "If I lend them the torch, will they return it to me?" "If I lend them the torch this time, they might borrow other things from me next time. Will they?"
While Joyce was still hesitating, the little girl smiled, "That's okay, miss. We knew you probably don't. That's why I come over." Then, taking a torch out from her pocket, she continued, "Mum said there will be power outage tonight. Take this. You'll need it."
Joyce suddenly became speechless. She was so ashamed of herself. She regretted very much at what she had thought of the little girl and her family. It was just that simple and friendly!

Sometimes we might have thought too much. We might have complicated very simple issues. If we could always look things on the bright side first, the world would look much brighter to us too.

Outside The Windows

When May stepped into her adolescence, she began to have her own point of views on everything, and always had differences with her father. She felt her dad always nagged on things. Everything didn't seem right to him. So her relationship with her dad didn't go very well.
One day, she needed to go to a remote place, and her dad drove her there. They didn't talk much on the way. When they reached to the outskirts, her dad saw a river and said to her that the river was very dirty with lots of garbage. He continued to complain that those people were irresponsible and caused great damages to the environment. May looked outside the window. She couldn't agree with her dad as she saw that the river was quite nice, and it wasn't dirty at all. She felt her dad started again to nag on things as usual. She then withdrew into silence, and they didn't talk any more for the rest of the journey.
Today, May went to the same place again. But this time, she was the driver herself. When she reached to the same spot of the outskirts as she and her father did, she discovered that there were really two rivers; the one on the driver's side was indeed very dirty and full of garbage, the other on the passenger's side was very nice and clean like what she had seen before. She then realized that she had never looked at things from her father's perspective. She wanted very much to tell her dad that indeed he was right, and wanted very much to say sorry to him. But she was not able to do so as her father had already passed away last month.

We all have different views. Sometimes, we may base on our own experience and ability to view subjectively and judge on others. If things turn up differently from our expectations, we tend to disagree and feel frustrated. Try to look more from other people's perspective and understand their rationale and difficulties. We can then have a better understanding of the true picture and can calmly face the situation and handle the matter more appropriately.

The Story of the Barber

In a certain remote village, there is a barber who shaves all and only those villagers who do not shave themselves.
The story is simple, but now comes the question, "Who shaves the barber?"
If the barber shaves himself, then he does not (since the barber shaves only those who do not shave themselves). If the barber does not shave himself, then he indeed does (since the barber shaves all those who do not shave themselves). So, the logic shows the barber shaves himself if and only if he does not shave himself, which is totally absurd.

The only possible answer to the question is that there cannot possibly be such a barber, nor such a village. Put simply, the story is impossible!

Promise. Promise.

Once upon a time, there was a man who worked all of his life and saved all of his money. He was a real miser. He loved money more than anything else. Just before he died, he said to his wife,"Now listen. When I die, I want you to take all my money and place it in the coffin with me. I want to take my money to my afterlife." So he got his wife to promise him with all her heart.
One day, he died. His body was stretched out in the coffin. The wife was sitting there in black next to her closest friend. When they finished the ceremony, and just before the undertakers got ready to close the coffin, the wife handed out a shoe box and placed it in the coffin. Then the undertakers locked the coffin down and rolled it away.
Her friend said, "I hope you weren't crazy enough to put all that money in the coffin." The wife said, "Yes. I promised. I'm a good Catholic. I can't lie. I promised him that I was going to put that money in the coffin with him." Her friend raised her voice, "My goodness. You mean to tell me you put every cent of his money in the coffin with him?" The wife said calmly, "Why, yes. I sure did. I put them all into my account, and I wrote him a cheque."