Wait in Anger - a story

Here's a little story that perfectly expresses this bit of "Tom's Hard Won Wisdom". I heard it some years ago and have tried to follow its example ever since. Each time I have succeeded, it has consistently made things go better. So here's the story as I remember it.

The Shopkeeper

There once was a village shopkeeper who had a lovely wife and three small children. Early one morning, before the rest of the village was awake, the shopkeeper went to open the store and discovered a man's body draped over the steps into the shop. Terrified, he ran out of the village and wandered the surrounding countryside in a daze. Finally on the third day he came across a group of strangers around an evening campfire. He learned that they were pilgrims on their way to gain spiritual strength and wisdom from a hermit who lived on top of one of the nearby mountains. He decided to join them. For ten years he stayed on the mountain top, assisting the hermit with his many visitors.

Then one day the hermit said: "You have been a faithful servant, but it is time for you to return home."

The shopkeeper replied, "If I must. But please sir,  I have worked hard for you all these years. What can you give me to take home?"

The hermit replied, "Very well. My gift is this: If you are ever moved to anger, don't act on that anger for at least 24 hours. Now go."

The shopkeeper didn't say anything, but thought, "After 10 years of loyal service, this is all I get?" Fuming, he packed his few belongings and set off.

He arrived at his village well after dark. Nervous about his reception after ten years away, he tiptoed onto his lawn and looked in the window. There he saw his wife dancing cheek to cheek with a very handsome young man, obviously a new lover. Overcome with jealousy, he grabbed his knife to storm the house and do something, anything to get them to stop!

Then he remembered what the hermit had said: "Don't act on your anger for at least 24 hours." Frustrated, and with great difficulty, he re-sheathed his knife and want off to camp for the night at the edge of the village.

On the way into town the next morning he ran into a neighbor from years before. "John, how wonderful to see you," the neighbor said. "You've returned just in time. Your son has grown into a wonderful young man and is about to be married to the prettiest girl in town. The whole village will be celebrating with a ball after the wedding. You may not know, but your son never learned to dance, so he and your wife have been practicing at every opportunity and all over town. It's been a delight to watch."

The shopkeeper nearly fainted. How wrong I was last night. To think that my anger might have killed them instead of joining them in this wonderful celebration.

As you can see dear readers, this is also a story about being careful of the assumptions we make about other people, and about what's going on in the world around us. But "assumptions" will be another wisdom piece that will be coming soon.