The boy with the flowers

One day at around noon an old lady was enjoying her siesta. The naughty boy came to her with a very big bouquet of flowers. He said to the old lady, “I come of a poor family. I am very poor. Will you buy some flowers? I shall sell them to you for a very cheap price.”

The old lady said, ”I feel so sorry for you because you are poor. But I have plenty of flowers just like these in my garden. If I didn’t have my own flowers, then definitely I would buy this bouquet from you. Such beautiful roses you have! But I also have roses in my garden, so I don’t feel like buying these. I'm sure there are others who will buy from you. Your flowers are so beautiful. I tell you what — tomorrow morning you come here, and I will give you the most beautiful rose from my garden.”

The boy said, “Oh no, you will not be able to give me the most beautiful rose from your garden. You won’t find it tomorrow.”

She said, “Certainly I will be able to give it to you tomorrow. Come with me. I will show you.” But the boy just disappeared with the bouquet.

The following morning the lady went to the garden, hoping that the boy would come to take the most beautiful rose from her garden. But to her wide surprise she didn’t see the rose she was looking for. In fact, all her roses were missing except for one which was at the entrance to the garden. She did find another very beautiful rose, but this was already lying on the ground. The rest of her roses had been picked. The naughty boy had stolen the most beautiful rose and the rest of the flowers as well.

When the lady saw the naughty boy selling flowers again the following day, she said to him, “I wanted to give you my most beautiful rose, but unfortunately I do not have it any more.”

What would your answer have been if you had been the naughty boy who had stolen the flowers? You should not steal at all. But if you had, what would you have done?

D: Get new flowers and plant them.

Sri Chinmoy: Would they grow overnight? If that were possible, then whenever we need roses, Kanan would not have to go to Manhattan to the flower market any more!

M: I would take the ones I stole and put them back.

Sri Chinmoy: But they were already plucked.

L: I would have given her a big pink rose.

J: I would have told her that she didn’t have to show me her rose, because I had a flower for her that was more beautiful. Then the next day I would go and ask my mother to buy me a rose, and I would go and show her that the rose I had for her was more beautiful.

N: Just give them back.

Sri Chinmoy: The naughty boy’s answer is coming. The thief knew that he was caught. First he started to ask her for her forgiveness. But when he saw that she was not going to forgive him, he just threw down the flowers and disappeared.