My son asked me twenty-five times

* P A R E N T S *

An old man was sitting in the courtyard of his house along with his son who
had received tertiary education. Suddenly a crow perched on a wall of the
house.

The father asked the son: ‘What is this?’ The son replied: ‘It is a crow.’

After a little while the father again asked the son: ‘What is this?’ The son
said: ‘It is a crow.’ After a few minutes the father asked his son the third
time: ‘What is this?’ The son said: ‘Father, I have just now told you that
this is a crow.’

After a little while the old father again asked his son the fourth time:
‘What is this?’ At this time some expression of irritation was felt in the
son’s tone when he said to his father with a rebuff, ‘Father! It is a crow,
a crow.’

A little after the father again asked his son: ‘What is this?’ This time the
son replied to his father with a vein of temper. Father: ‘You are always
repeating the same question, although I have told you so many times that it
is a crow. Are you not able to understand this?’

A little later the father went to his room and came back with an old diary.
Opening a page he asked his son to read that. When the son read it the
following words were written in the diary: “Today my little son was sitting
with me in the courtyard, when a crow came there. My son asked me
twenty-five times what it was and I told him twenty-five times that it was a
crow and I did not at all feel irritated. I rather felt affection for the
innocent child.”

The father then told the son the difference between a father and a son’s
attitude, ‘While a little child he asked me this question twenty-five times
and I felt no irritation in replying to the question twenty-five times and
when today I asked him the same question only five times, he felt irritated
and annoyed.’

Lesson: none can match the generosity of our parents