Paying attention

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A story picked up from somewhere but forgot to keep track of it ... (most likely from Paul Cohelo)

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A man knocked at his Bedouin friend’s door to ask him a favor:

“I want you to lend me four thousand dinars because I have a debt to pay. Can you do that for me?”

The friend asked his wife to gather together everything they had of value, but even so it was not enough. They had to go out and borrow money from the neighbors until they managed to get the full amount.

When the man left, the woman noticed that her husband was crying.

“Why are you sad? Now that we’ve got ourselves in debt with our neighbors, are you afraid we won’t be able to repay them?”

“Nothing of the sort! I’m crying because he is someone I love so much, but even so I had no idea he was in need.

“I only remembered him when he had to knock on my door to ask me for a loan.”

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Often we end up saying, “if he was in need, he should have asked."  but people who are paying attention to others, always give before being asked for. This is not an easy as there is a fine line between helping and being intrusive.

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