We tackled honesty; how it is a unique treasure in man’s life and a key virtue according to all religions. We also dealt with how to be true to God and yourself. As for being honest at your work; it means that you should do all your work duties to the full, being a student or an employer. Your honesty should not be connected with being monitored or not. As your personal monitor, that is, human conscience should be intact. Thus, an honest person is fearless.
There is a story engraved in my mind that a farmer who owns a piece of land on the Pacific Ocean and he declared that he is in need of employing a co-farmer to help him. Many farmers decline his request because of the heavy storms that blow damaging the crops and destroying houses. Yet, one day a middle-aged man has applied for that job. The farmer asked him: “Are you a good worker?”He answered” I can sleep when the wind blows”. His answer was vague, but due to his old age and bad need for work, the farmer hired him at once. The little man worked well around the farm, busy from dawn to dusk, and the farmer felt satisfied with the man’s work. Then one night the wind howled loudly in from offshore. Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the hired hand’s sleeping quarters. He shook the little man and yelled, “Get up! A storm is coming! Tie things down before they blow away!” The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, “No sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows.” Enraged by the response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on the spot. Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm. To his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had been covered with tarpaulins. The cows were in the barn, the chickens were in the coops, and the doors were barred. The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down. Nothing could blow away. The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, so he returned to his bed to also sleep while the wind blew.
An honest laborer does his best and spares no effort in doing his job duties, thus he knows no fear or regret. By being honest, you gain God’s blessing, success, self-respect and others’ trust.
Honesty at work would help you avoid problems. Once upon a time, a king summoned his three ministers and asked each minister to take a bag, go to the palace’s garden and fill that bag with all kinds of delicious fruits.
He clearly told them not to ask anybody for help and not to rely on each other. Each one should fulfill this task by himself.
The first minister set about filling the bag with all the best fruits and vegetables. He wanted to please the king, so he made sure he chose carefully. By the end of the day, he had filled his bag with the best and delicious fruits he could find.
The second minister was convinced that the king does not want the fruits and actually he’s not asking for those fruits for himself. So he, with this mentality, decided to be sloppy and started to fill the bag with just any fruits without checking whether they are edible, rotten or tasty. He simply did not care.
The third minister thought that the king does not even care what’s inside the bag, so he started filling the bag with leafs, weed and other non edible garbage just to make the bag look like its full.
The next day, the king summoned back his three ministers along with the bags they were set about to fill with fruits.
When the three ministers showed up, the king gave an order to his soldiers to imprison, for three months with no food or water, each of the ministers with their own bags in a far away prison where no one can hear or help them. The first minister, having filled his bag with good fruits, ate properly and survived the three month healthily.
The second minister, having filled his bag sloppily, had to live frugally with the little good fruits he had. He suffered a lot during those three months but he made it alive.
The third minister, having filled his bag with garbage, did not stand a chance and died out of hunger.
Though it is an allegory, it offers us the fact that we will be rewarded according to our deeds. To be continued…
General Bishop
Head of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center
