Mindset story: I will give you mine if you give me yours – The marble parable

There once were two friends a boy and a girl who had known each other for many years. They played together, laughed together, and shared many adventures. But there was one thing they never shared, their most prized possessions. The boy had a wonderful collection of marbles. Each marble was different, some were shiny, some were colorful, and a few were rare and special. He would often take them out and admire them, rolling them in his hands and watching them sparkle in the sunlight. The girl, on the other hand, had an enormous collection of sweets. Her candies were of all kind, chocolates, caramels, fruit drops, and lollipops. Every time she opened her box of sweets, the delicious aroma filled the air, making it impossible to resist. For years, both of them had admired what the other had. The girl longed to play with the boy’s marbles, and the boy wished he could taste the girl’s delicious sweets. But neither of them ever wanted to share what they had with the other person.

One day, they decided to make a deal. “I will give you all of my sweets,” the girl told the boy, “if you give me all of your marbles.” The boy thought about it. He liked his marbles very much, but he also really wanted the girl’s sweets. “Alright,” he agreed, “let’s trade.” That night, before the exchange, the boy carefully gathered all of his marbles into a bag. As he was sorting through them, he came across one that was different from the rest. It was his favorite, a deep blue marble with golden swirls inside, so rare and beautiful that he couldn’t bear to part with it. “I’ll keep just this one,” he thought, hiding it under his bed. “She’ll never know.” Meanwhile, the girl also gathered all of her sweets and put them into a bag. But unlike the boy, she didn’t hold anything back. She placed every single piece inside, excited about the exchange and happy to share what she had. The next day, they met as planned. The girl smiled and handed over her bag of sweets, confident that she had kept her promise. The boy, in return, gave her his bag of marble, except for the one he had hidden.

That evening, the girl went to bed feeling happy and peaceful. She held her new marbles in her hands, delighted with their colors and patterns. She never doubted, not even for a second, that the boy had given her everything he had promised. But the boy? He could not sleep. As he lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, a thought crept into his mind: What if she didn’t give me all of her sweets? What if she, like me, kept the best ones for herself? The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he became. He wondered if she had hidden her favorite candy somewhere, just as he had hidden his favorite marble. Suspicion filled his mind, and no matter how much he tried, he could not shake the feeling that he had been tricked. But was he tricked? Or was his own dishonesty making him doubt the honesty of his friend? Whatever it was it prevented him from sleeping peacefully, and after a few days, he took the last marble and gave it to the girl and told her everything. That night the boy finally was able to sleep in peace. The next day when he woke up he decided that if he ever made a promise again, he would keep it fully, because only by being truly honest can we find peace in our hearts.