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 | | From: | JPF | | Subject: | Little action--Big rewards | | Date: | Mon, 10 Jan 2005 22:58:32 GMT |
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 | Years ago in a little town in Russia, a postal clerk watched a bearded
scholar enter the post office and head straight for his window. The
clerk recognized the town Rabbi, whom he had waited on about an hour
before. "Excuse me," the Rabbi said quietly, making sure no one else
overheard, "but is it possible you made an error in giving me change?"
"Are you saying I cheated you?" the clerk demanded in a loud voice.
"Not at all," the Rabbi replied softly, "but I made several stops today
and someone made a mistake. I thought it might be you."
"I have been a clerk here for three years and I don't make mistakes."
"If you find that a mistake was made, please let me know." The Rabbi
turned and left the building.
As the clerk was counting his receipts at the end of the day, his heart
suddenly lurched. He was short by almost 100 rubles. This was an
enormous sum and he would have to make up the shortfall personally or
lose his job. A job in the government, even one as a clerk, was highly
prized. What else could he do to support his family? Menial labor that
barely put bread on the table? There was no way he could come up with
the money. The bottom had dropped out of his world. With a heavy heart,
he set out for home, knowing that at the end of the week when the
postmaster counted his receipts, all would be lost.
"Excuse me," a soft voice called behind him. He turned to see the Rabbi.
"I have checked at the other places I went to today and I am sure that
it was your mistake."
The clerk stopped suddenly. "Could it have been a mistake of almost 100
rubles?" he asked.
The Rabbi smiled. "I knew a mistake like that would not go undiscovered
for long. Indeed you gave me 100 ruble note instead of a one. Now if you
will be so kind as to give me a one, I will return your 100 ruble note."
"I can't believe this," the clerk said, "you are actually returning it?"
"Of course," the Rabbi replied, "it's not mine."
"Rabbi, you have saved my life!" the clerk exclaimed.
"I just did what was right," the Rabbi said.
The clerk and the Rabbi became friends of a sort, in a community where
the Jews and Gentiles rarely mixed. The clerk asked the Rabbi about
ethics and the Rabbi told him in every situation to act as if he were
the other party.
"How did you feel when you discovered the missing money?" the Rabbi
asked.
"Terrible," the clerk replied.
"Well, I just asked myself how I would feel if I had been the one who
lost it. In every situation, try to put yourself in the position of the
other person. When dealing with people at your window, treat them as
you wish to be treated when you are a customer. You will find that it
is not only better for them, it is better for you."
The clerk took pains to be friendly to his customers and accurate in his
dealings. This caught the attention of his supervisors and he was
promoted to Postmaster. Eventually, he became an official with some
standing in the town government. A few times when some ruling was
proposed that would affect the Jewish community, he would speak
against it and at times it would be overturned.
At such times, the members of the Jewish community asked the Rabbi how
this man had become such a friend. The Rabbi told the story of the
mistake and how doing what was right had led to this friendship.
"People judge an entire community by the actions of one person," he
explained, "because I did what was right and I am a Jew, he now believes
that Jews can be trusted to do what it right. If he ever runs into a Jew
who does the wrong thing, his whole outlook will change."
Some years later, a group of anti-Semites in the government proposed to
banish the entire Jewish community from the town.
"We don't need them!" one said, "They do nothing for this town."
The Postmaster reminded them that there were Jews who performed needed
services, from the baker to the tailor.
"We have our own bakers and our own tailors!"
The Postmaster pointed out that the more business done in town, the more
taxes were collected.
"But Jews are cheats! They don't pay taxes!" was the response.
"Why do you say that?"
"Everybody knows it!"
"Are you willing to make a wager?" the Postmaster asked.
"Absolutely."
"Then you and I will both put up one thousand rubles," the Postmaster
declared. "Tomorrow I will ask my clerks to 'accidentally' give ten Jews
and ten non Jews a hundred ruble note instead of a one. Let us see which
group responds honestly. The winner of the bet will get to keep the
entire amount."
So it was done. When a Jew discovered the mistake, he remembered the
Rabbi's advice and immediately returned it. Only three of the Gentiles
did so.
The other seven had to be threatened with arrest before they turned over
what they had thought to be their windfall.
The Postmaster returned his thousand ruble profit to the other man,
explaining what the Rabbi had taught him about putting himself in the
other person's position. The edict of banishment for the Jewish
community was overturned.
There are two lessons in this story. First, put yourself in the other
person's position. If you take advantage of someone else's mistake or
misfortune, next time it will be someone else taking advantage of your
mistake. A friend once bought a very expensive tape player for his car.
When I asked him how he could afford it, he told me "it fell off a
truck."
I was shocked that he would buy stolen goods. A month later, he was
moaning to me how someone had smashed his car window and stolen his tape
deck. I gently reminded him that if he had purchased one honestly within
his budget, a thief might not have been tempted to steal it. Someone
once came to my door and offered me some computer software at a very
attractive price. He claimed that he had purchased it from a liquidator.
After completing the purchase, I opened the package and discovered a sales
receipt made out to someone in the local area. I called the person and
discovered that he had ordered the software and was still waiting for
it to arrive. It was obvious that the package had been stolen from his
mailbox. I returned the software and helped him make a criminal
complaint against the thief.
"Why didn't you just keep it?" he asked me.
"Today he robbed your mailbox," I answered, "tomorrow it could have been
mine."
Lesson two: People tend to judge entire groups based on the actions of
one person. How many times have you heard, "All (insert any race,
religion, national origin) do (insert any negative action here)"? When I
hear such a comment, I usually respond with, "Let me tell you what a person
of
that group did to me." Then I relate a positive story. My listener will say,
"Okay, you met one good one." So I relate another story. Usually by the
third story, I have them admitting that no sentence about any group can
begin with the word ALL. But the sad fact remains, it takes ONE negative
action to have people saying "all." It takes THREE positive actions to
undo the damage. The next time you are about to steal someone's parking
space, honk your horn at an inappropriate time or make a disparaging
remark about a member of another group, think about what someone will say
about "all" of your group.
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