Wisdom story: The potato experiment about hate

One day a teacher had to break up a fight between two of his students during lunch break. The two students got two options, either to apologize to each other in front of everyone or get detention for the whole month. Both students decided to go with detention since they didn’t want to apologize to each other. The teacher was shocked and asked why did they decide the way they did. And he couldn’t believe the answer he got. Both shouted out loud that they hated each other. That day the teacher went home with a heavy burden on his shoulders. He believed the two young boys were too young to let hate dictate their fate in such a big way. He was also afraid for the other children, what if these two boys are not the only two who turn to hate so easily. The teacher was up all night trying to figure out what to do about this. Finally, in the morning he decided to teach his class a lesson about hate by making them do the potato experiment.

As the students came into class they noticed that there were some potatoes and a plastic bag waiting for them on their desks. During class, each student had to bring his potatoes to the teacher’s desk, where the teacher would cut the potatoes in half and they would have to write the first letter of a person’s name they hate where the potatoes were cut. Then they would have to put the potatoes in their plastic bag. The students had different numbers of potatoes in their bags as some hated more people than others did. Then the teacher explained to the students that this is a part of their exam. All they need to do is have their bag with them all the time no matter where they went. And then after one week, they would have to write an essay about what they have learned about hate from a bag of potatoes during this time. The title of the essay is “The potato experiment about hate”.

Day after day passed by, and the children started to complain due to the unpleasant smell let out by the rotten potatoes. Besides, those who hated more people had more potatoes to carry which made the bag heavier. After one week, the children were relieved because the exam had finally ended. The only thing left to do was to write their essay. As the teacher had received his student’s essays and as he read them he saw that the students were frustrated and complained about the troubles the rotten potatoes caused them and what they had to go through carrying such a heavy and smelly bad everywhere they went. He marked some of his student’s thoughts and decided to share them with the whole class.

Most students said that the first couple of days they constantly had the bag on their mind and were very stressed as they didn’t want to lose it. Then when they finally got used to it and forgot about it the smell came. Because of the smell, they couldn’t think straight and their friends and family didn’t want to be near them. In the end, most of them agreed that the bag was the main reason why fewer and fewer people wanted to hang out with them and why they felt so miserable all the time. Then the teacher told them the hidden meaning behind the game.

The teacher said: “This is exactly the situation when you carry your hatred for somebody inside your heart. The stench of the hatred will contaminate your heart and you will carry it with you wherever you go. If you cannot tolerate the smell of rotten potatoes for just 1 week, can you imagine what is it like to have the stench of hatred in your heart for your lifetime? I hope that the Potatoe experiment about hate had given you something to think about hate.