At a meeting with a dear visitor after his return from a trip abroad, he said to me, “Do you remember the so called person?” I answered, “Yes, I remember him well. His life is cloaked with kindness, well-manners and he tries to help anyone he meets as much as he can”. He said, “You know he is my friend and verily he is as you described.” Then he resumed saying, “During my trip I passed by the city where my friend lives at the USA as I met him before I leave and there was a situation that happened and I’d like to recount:
I went with my friend to a stationary shop and he accompanied his two boys. After we bought what we needed, his son asked to buy a small torch to use at his room at night. His father bought it and on the next day, my friend passed by my place with his kid whom he bought him the torch .On our way, he stopped by the shop that we were at the previous day, he bought some things then he took a torch like he bought yesterday. I joked with him saying, “Do you want to buy a torch so you can use it at your room at night?”He didn’t answer me but just smiled. While we are paying the bill of what we bought, he asked the salesman to add the price of the torch to the bill, but he wouldn’t buy it. When he asked him about the reason, he answered that on the previous day he bought such-like torch, but there was a mistake as when he checked the bill after getting back home, he didn’t find the price of the torch recoded on the bill. Thus, he decided to go back to the shop to pay its price. The salesman was amazed at my friend and he said to him, “Thank you for your great honesty” He asked him about his nationality and my friend answered that he was Egyptian. Hence he said to him, “I wish I can visit your great country one day and thank you again for your honesty”. I felt I was so proud of what my friend did as I knew how he was going through hard financial conditions, yet it didn’t force him to compromise his principles ever! Hence I remembered the title of your series articles, “Principles”, so I said to myself, how lovely life will be, if we behave using good principles and how hard it will be when principles disappear.
My visitor’ story was finished. He excused leaving, then I took my pen to find the letters falling on papers: Verily, principles are the essence and true meaning of life. They are not just mottos that we offer to people, but a life that we live and seeds we grow with blood, sweat and tears and reap its fruits of “Trust”, “Success” and “Distinction” and they are manifest in our life through our behaviors and attitudes, preceding our steps while going on the journey of life.
