A short story from my forthcoming book NEVER GIVE UP

Here is a short story from the new edition of NEVER GIVE UP which is due June 2015.

I hope you like it...


The Buddha was teaching a group of people one day when he found himself on the receiving end of a fierce outburst of abuse from a bystander, who was for some reason very angry and frustrated.

The Buddha listened patiently while the stranger vented his rage before addressing his audience. “If someone offers a gift to another person, who then chooses to decline it, tell me, who would then own the gift? The person who offered the gift or the person who refused to accept the gift?”

“The giver,” said the group after a little thought. 

“Any fool can see that,” added the angry stranger.

“Then it follows, does it not?” said the Buddha. “Whenever a person tries to abuse us, or to unload their anger on us, we can each choose to decline or to accept the abuse; whether to make it ours or not. By our personal response to the abuse from another, we can choose who owns and keeps the bad feelings.”

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