Empathy- Standing in One's Shoes

Once there lived a grumpy, old man, Mr. Jones who was always in a bad mood. He was terribly annoyed by his neighbor for every day in the morning, she would shout at her little cat, “Tiddles, stop pulling my dress, I am really tired right now!” This loud noise made by his neighbor who was an Opera house singer would always wake him up from his deep sleep. Once he would wake up he would always shout out at his neighbor for breaking his wonderful dream. Mr. Jones had often told his neighbor to give the cat to any pet shop owner, but her reply would always be that she could not sell the cat to anyone for her husband was a cat lover. Next in his schedule, he would go to the park to sit and read the morning newspaper in the fresh air. One day it such happened that a poor, little child only nine years old stopped by him and asked him to buy some cookies he had with him. Mr. Jones did not answer him for a long time until he got frustrated and shouted out at the boy, “You nasty little brat! Go away at once and do not keep bothering me while I am reading the newspaper. Go away! I don’t want to eat your cookies!” The poor little boy went away disheartened and full of sorrow. Mr. Jones did not even bother to see him again; he kept on reading the newspaper happily. That night when he slept he had a dream that he had brought some shiny little shoes for himself from the best shop in the town. When he woke up from his bed hearing the shouts of his neighbor who was saying, “Tiddles, stop chewing my skirt! I am really hungry, so please let me make my breakfast. In reply to this, Mr. Jones said, “Can’t you even let me finish my wonderful dream?” Mr. Jones was very fascinated by the dream he saw at night. He looked around and to his surprise saw the same shoes he had seen in his dream. He quickly wore them to see how they fitted. As he stepped into the shoes, he just zoomed through the time and found himself as his neighbor.

He found the cat chewing his clothes and him feeling very hungry, during this only he heard him shout himself from the next building the thing he had said in the morning. He felt quite irritable for the cat was disturbing him, he was feeling hungry and he was being shouted on. Suddenly in a flash of light, he came back to his room sitting on the bed. He thought again if he should be sorry for his words to his neighbor, but he thought that it was not his fault, it was the women. Mr. Jones then looked at his shoes and thought that because they were shining so brightly, he can go to the park wearing the shoes. When he went to the park and sat on his favorite bench, he found the boy come in his direction and the boy asked him once again to at least buy one box of them. This time Mr. Jones pushed the boy away from him. Suddenly Mr. Jones came in the body of the little child and heard the little boy’s mother speak to him in an old broken house, “Son, yesterday also you did not sell any cookies. Your father has already died and we have no earning now. How will we pay the rent for this house? Please, do try to at least sell three boxes of the cookies I have made.” Hearing this, Mr. Jones came back to his bench. He saw that the boy was sobbing and was going to some other place. Mr. Jones realized that it was his fault only, both the times and that he should always be empathetic. He quickly got up from the bench and ran in the direction where the boy was going. He asked the boy to give him one box of cookies to taste. They were so delicious that he felt in love with them and he quickly asked the boy to give him two boxes of cookies o each flavor. The child was astonished at seeing how the old man’s behavior had suddenly changed. He gave the old man the cookies he had asked for. The boy was so happy that he jumped up and down again and again. He told Mr. Jones what a big help he had done. Hearing this Mr. Jones felt very happy and asked him for an order of five more boxes of each flavor. The child said that he would give it to him by day after tomorrow. Then, Mr. Jones placed another order that he would want three boxes of cookies for every week starting from the next one. You can take these rupees as advance, and whenever you are short of money you can come to me in this park, on the bench in the morning and I will give you more money. The child was on cloud 9 for getting so many orders and seeing him Mr. Jones also felt the same. Then Mr. Jones left the park and came back to his home and on the way, he rang the bell of his neighbor and gave her one box of each of the flavors of the cookies he had brought saying her that he was sorry for whatever happened in the morning. From then Mr. Jones was a very changed man and he would give the cookies he would buy from the child to the other children on the streets, and from then on the shoes were never to be seen again.