The Sage and the small Boy

Once there lived a sage in a small village. Whatever the sage advices people followed. So, people from far of distance use to visit the sage with their naughty child, wife, husband, brother, sister to get advice from the sage.

Mary was living in the next village. She was worried about her son Mark's habbit of eating more sweets. She had warned Mark about this, but he does not seem to hear his mother's words. Through neighbours, Mary came to know about the sage and his power.

On one fine day, Mary took her son Mark to the sage. Mary complained about her son's habbit to the sage. The sage, after thinking about this for a couple of minutes asked Mary and Mark to visit him after 10 days.

Mary was waiting for the completion of 10 days. Exactly on the 11th day, she took her son to the sage. She reminded the sage about the complaint. The sage looked at Mark, with a confident voice, he said - "Son! stop eating sweets". Mark nodded. Both the mother and her son left the place.

To her surprise, Mary found that from that day onwards, Mark had completely stopped eating sweets. She was happy and wanted to thank the sage. So, the next week, she went and visited the sage and thanked him. When she was about to leave the place, she asked the sage, why he wanted them to come after 10 days. She wondered why not the sage told Mark the same words 10 days earlier.

Smiling at Mary's question, the sage replied that till she complained about Mark, he was eating more sweets. So, he wanted to control his habbit before advising Mark. And that was the reason for 10 days gap.

Moral of the Story :

1. Great men teach or preach what they practice
2. Chances of people hearing your words, if you practice it 100% yourself
3. People do what you do than what you say
4. Self-control is the first step towards control over many lives