Grapes

A man brought a bunch of grapes to Prince Ahmad as a gift.

He was very excited to be able to bring a gift for Prince Ahmad. He placed the grapes beside him and said, ‘O Prince Ahmad, please accept this small gift from me’. He was a poor man who could not afford more.

His face beamed with happiness as he offered his small gift. It was evident that he loved the Prince a lot.

The Prince thanked him graciously. As the man looked at him expectantly, the Prince ate one grape. Then he ate another one. Slowly the Prince finished the whole bunch of grapes by himself. He did not offer grapes to anyone present.

The poor man who brought those grapes was very pleased and left.

The close friends of the prince who were around him were surprised. Usually, the Prince shared whatever he got with them. He would offer them whatever he was given and they would eat it together. Usually, he would start first, out of respect to the person who had given him the gift. But he would always offer it to others.

This time had been different. Without offering it to anyone, Prince Ahmad finished the bunch of grapes by himself.

One of the friends asked respectfully, 'O Prince Ahmad! How come you ate all the grapes by yourself and did not offer to any of us present?'

The Prince smiled and said, 'I ate all the grapes by myself because the grapes were sour. If I would have offered you, you might have made funny faces and shown your distaste of the grapes. That would have hurt the feelings of that poor man. I thought to myself that it’s better that I eat all of them cheerfully and please the poor man. I did not want to hurt the feelings of that poor man.'