The animal kingdom held a grand celebration. The animals flying in the sky, crawling on the ground and swimming in the water all gathered to celebrate their annual festival of joy.
In the banquet hall’s fine dining room, the waiter handed the menu to the three mouths sitting at the table, ready to dine: mom, dad, and daughter Miss Rabbit.
“Thank you, give us one of your specialties here. Oh, just one serving that’s enough for my daughter.” The father rabbit said.
“What about you two?” The orangutan asked.
“We’ve both eaten, thanks.” After saying that, the rabbit’s father and mother lowered their heads.
The family’s situation caught the attention of the restaurant manager, Zebra, who called the orangutan over to ask what was happening. The orangutan said, “They are very poor and can’t afford to eat here at all, that no, they only ordered one for their daughter.”
After observation, the zebra manager found that the parents looked at their daughter with kind and gentle eyes but meticulously taught their daughter the posture and proper etiquette of eating. Thinking that the waiter ape might have misunderstood the family, the zebra manager personally carried two cups of coffee to the rabbit family’s table.
“Sir, this is the coffee we gave you.”
“But we didn’t order it.” The rabbit’s father stood up and politely refused.
“No, it’s a gift from our restaurant to you both as a couple.”
With that, the zebra manager talked with the rabbit couple and finally understood the real reason why the family of three only ordered one dish.
The rabbit’s father said, “Our financial situation is not very good. We can not afford to eat this kind of fine restaurant dish. But we have faith in our child and know that a child raised in poverty will have extraordinary achievements, and we hope to teach it dining etiquette early; more importantly, we want our child to grow up remembering that it has been in a fancy restaurant and received the kind of feeling of highly respected service, and hope it will be a person who always knows how to respect itself and also respect others in the future.”
“It is hard to buy poverty at an early age when you have money,” so it is clear that poverty is also a spiritual treasure. Poverty can make the weak-willed give up on themselves and be willing to be lowly; poverty can also make the strong-willed unyielding, self-respecting and self-improving to create a remarkable life. Those who can maintain dignity in poverty can eventually become a person of noble quality.
