Mr. Joseph's Special Chest

When siblings value family ties

more than possessions,

there will be no resentment among them.

When siblings are careful with their words

and hold back hurtful comments,

feelings of anger naturally dissolve

If we are not careful, we may find ourselves saying things that hurt our brothers and sisters. Or we may find ourselves arguing over family possessions. When these happen, we may fight and even stop speaking to each other.

This is what happened to Mr. Joseph’s family. But then one day he found a way to change everything ...

Although Mr. Joseph had three sons, he was very lonely because they rarely came to visit him. And when they did visit, it was always by themselves because they didn’t get along.

Every visit was the same. They would spend all the time talking about themselves and telling him how busy they were. When they had run out of things to tell him, they would then ask how he was. But as soon as he began to tell them, they would make an excuse to leave. They never spent time listening to him, never asked if there was anything they could do for him or even if he was okay.

Mr. Joseph was getting older so he had plenty of time to consider his situation. He rarely saw his sons and he wanted to change that. He also wished they would get along better. He began to plan a way to make all this happen.

First, he bought a chest with two locks. He placed the chest in the room where he spent most of his time. Then he brought home several rocks from the nearby forest. He carefully wrapped the rocks in cloth so they wouldn’t make any noise and put them in the chest. He also put the key to the locks on a string and began to wear it around his neck.

Next, he got a lot of pennies, which he placed in several bags. These he then put in the chest. He made sure the bags had plenty of room for the coins to clink against each other should the chest be moved.

For a final touch, he bought an expensive chair. The chair was an extravagance for him, but necessary for his plan.

And then he patiently waited.

His youngest son was the first to visit. He immediately noticed the locked chest, the key on the string around his father’s neck, and the new chair his father was sitting on. When he asked about them, his father said he had received a generous offer for a piece of land and so sold it for a lot of money. In fact, he had received so much money that he splurged on the chair as a comfort for his old age. The rest of the money was in the chest where he could keep an eye on it. The key opened the locks so he wore it to for safekeeping.

When Mr. Joseph’s son thought his father wasn’t looking, he nudged the chest with his foot. It didn’t move, but he heard the clinking of coins. Then he eyed the new chair and thought that if his thrifty father had spent money on an expensive chair, he most have indeed received a lot for the land.

He decided he would come to visit his father more often.

Then the middle son came by and he also noticed the chest, the key, and the chair. Asking about them, he received the same explanation his brother had. He also tested the chest with the same results and eyed the new chair. Like his brother, he decided he would visit his father more often.

After some time, the oldest son also came for a visit. Like his two brothers, he asked about the new possessions and learned of his father’s good fortune. After nudging the chest and checking out the chair, he too decided to visit more often.

As the three each began to call on their father more often, they began to spend more time talking with him and listening to what he had to say. They even helped out doing things around the house. They also found out what food he liked and brought it for him when they visited.

This continued for some time until one night, Mr. Joseph passed away peacefully in his sleep. His sons were told of their father’s passing and they all came to the house that very day.

They found the key among his clothes and went to the chest. With barely contained excitement, they unlocked it and lifted the lid. The oldest brother took out the bags and dumped their contents on the table. The three stared at the pile of pennies. Then they reached into the chest to take out the cloths and their heavy contents. When placed on the table, the cloths fell away to reveal the rocks.

In shock, the three looked at each other. They became very angry. Then the eldest brother shook his head and said that he only started to visit more because of the chest. The other two brothers admitted the same. Realizing what their father had done, the eldest brother said that he must have been really lonely.

The three brothers began to feel ashamed for all those years they had neglected their father. They had only cared for him when they thought he had a lot of money. And to make matters worse, each had visited him secretly in hopes that they would get more of the money! So they had been jealous brothers as well as bad sons. This was not the way their father had brought them up.

With a heavy heart, the youngest brother bent over the chest to close it but saw something had been carved in the bottom of it. He moved closer and read the inscription aloud:

A family’s greatest wealth

is its member’s love for one another.

Comments

[Geo]

Lovely story Venerable Wuling. Sadly, this is a the way of many families. I am an only child but via my extensive family of cousins I see it as well. My own daughters are close and have strong ties with myself and their mother and hopefully that will remain as they get older and go out into the world to live their lives.

Hopefully there will be people who come across your story who are in the position of the son(s) and realize the necessity to (re)connect with their families.

Peace, Geo
Namo Amituofo

[Cameo]

Dear Venerable, People are so ignorant when they fall into greed over family possessions. Don't they realize that the reason those items are valued is because they were part of the family? It makes me sad to see this happen. I like this story for children; they need to understand that it is the family bond that they cherish and not material things. I have thought about this and have begun giving things like jewelry and small antiques to my daughters now, before I die. The only other things I have to pass on are my poems, art works and the stories about my childhood that I'm writing now. I wonder what kind of illustration you will use with this story.
Amituofo
With respect, Cameo

[Venerable Wuling]

Cameo,

My parents did the same thing that you are doing. It wasn't as easy as cutting slices of cake (Mom was a whiz at this), but it was done fairly and according to likes. Of course, then I became a nun and everything went to my sister anyhow. ;-) She has said if I ever want anything back, just to let her know. But no, it doesn't always work out this well.

The stories are a bit of a challenge for several reasons. First is my problem of ranking children by height not age since I can't judge ages. Second the stories need an illustration but I have to find one from clipart.com and with three million images, it's a needle in a haystack situation. (Plus all those imprinted images on my consciousness!) Then I need to come up with a story idea. Never having had children, like the height vs. age quandary, I have never had to make up stories.

The maxims are often a few to a page and I do a story on just one of them. But the image may be one other than my story. For this story I have an image that will go on one of the story pages. The image is okay, but not one I'm that excited about. (My close-to-favorite is for Rufus and his five bothers.) So sometimes the illustration catches my eye and I save it hoping to make a connection with a maxim and be able to write a story. Other times I get an idea for a story and then have to try to come up with the right keywords that will lead me to a good illustration. It's all very exciting. LOL