Everyone loves a cake or a pie of their favorite flavor. So you might assign a label or quality of good to that dish of food. It is said then that cake or pie is good. If a person has a weak will and eats cake or pie too often then their health will suffer and they may become obese or even die. So it may be said that cake and pie are useful in the correct quantities and at proper times but poisonous in the incorrect measure.
The same may be said of a thief. What's that you are saying? A thief is no good! There was a time long ago when a small kingdom was besieged by a much larger kingdom. We will not say that one kingdom was good or evil just that one was larger than the other and had a military advantage or so it would seem.
In the smaller kingdom, a few weeks before the siege, a thief had been caught and was scheduled to be executed. The execution was delayed due to the siege and the captain of the guards came to the thief to tell him so.
The thief told the captain that he could help and would gladly do so. Once the captain relayed the message to the king the king believed that all was lost so he agreed in desperation. He believed that a thief had no place or value.
The guard freed the thief and he sneaked out of the city gates in the night. He came back to the king the next morning with the dagger of the invading king.
The king scoffed and said, Good! Now I can take my own life with the invader's dagger rather than let him kill me himself!
The next morning the thief came to visit the king again. This time he had the blanket from the bed the opposing king's bed.
The king laughed again and told the thief, If you were a really good thief you would steal the pillow from under his head, and he laughed heartily.
So, the next day the thief had the pillow from under the invading king's head and the king was clearly amazed at the craft of this thief. As they were talking, a messenger arrived with a message from the king of besieging force.
The message said, A fore night you stole my dagger and the next the blanket off my bed as I slept. Then last night you took the pillow I slept on. We are leaving and will never molest your kingdom again for I fear that the next night you will take my head.
After this the king freed the thief. The thief then taught the king's guards how to secure the kings home from people like himself and left the kingdom.
Prejudices are from labels so we must transcend labels and names. They elicit notions that may be unfair. I don't believe that anyone will now, after reading this, proclaim that thieves are good. Hopefully you will not say that they are bad. Hopefully you can transcend the labels and names and evaluate people and objects for their current usefulness. While a thief may not be good he can certainly be useful and a cake my be not be bad but it can be poison.
In the US there is a saying that no one is all bad and there is a little good in all of us. Remember to be mindful of all things and withhold judgments that come from values that were given to you by others. Every object and person has a use and has some good in them. Be kind, open-minded and fair.
tonyh
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