A Japanese Folk Tale - A Miracle Medicine
Treat others the way you want to be treated ( lesson of the story )
This is retelling of Japanese folktale of
NIHON MANGA - NAKAYOSHI NO MYOUYAKU
Once upon a time, in a village, there lived a woman and her daughter-in-law, and they had a bad relationship.The mother-in-law always complained about her daughter-in-law to the villagers.
Whenever the daughter-in-law learned that her mom complained, she cried and visited the monk in the village temple for advice. But the monk only told her to go home and be patient.
Until one day, the daughter-in-law could not stand living with her mother-in-law any more. She visited the monk whining and asking him to make poison against her mother-in-law.
The monk told her to wait for a while. He went to his room and came back with poison.
He said, "Mix this poison medicine in the food at every meal and give it
to your mother-in-law, after two days she would become weak then die gradually.
But remember to pretend to be a good daughter-in-law to her! Do as she told you. After seven days, come to see me ".
The daughter-in-law followed the monk's instructions.
She mixed the medicine with rice three times a day in her mother-in-law's meals.
Also, she listened to what her mother-in-law told her to do.
However, after two days, the mother-in-law didn't show any weakness.
On the contrary, she seems to be happier and even healthier after seven days. Furthermore, she treated the daughter-in-law better than before.
The daughter-in-law thought that this is strange. So, she went to see the monk again.
She said, "Master, the poison does not quite work!", and asked him for stronger
poison. "Don't worry! there are some cases that you can stay awake before you die", said the monk. Next, he went to get a stronger poison for her. The daughter-in-law went home and mixed the stronger poison into the rice to serve her mother-in-law again.
One day just for a while, the mother-in-law talked to her daughter, "I'm glad you recently listen to me very well," and then surprised her with a kimono present!The daughter-in-law was so touched by the kindness of the mother-in-law She felt guilty about her plan of trying to kill the mother-in-law. In a big hurry, she went to see the monk.
"Master, I feel so sorry for trying to kill my mom who has been very
nice to me recently. Is there any way to stop the poison?
The monk smiled and said, "The medicine that I gave to you was just arrowroot
flour instead of poison." Then he told the daughter-in-law, who was crying, that
if you want others to treat you well then you have to treat others well first!
From that time, the daughter-in-law and mother-in-law treated each other nicely
and they live together happily ever after.
THE END :)
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