Wisdom story: The reward of study

An ambitious young woman had traveled far from her family and native land to study in a distant and foreign country. For seven years she applied herself with discipline and diligence to learn the art and science of physiognomy, the skill of detecting personality and character in the faces of others.

She qualified with honors and set off on the long journey back to her homeland. On her way, she missed no opportunity to test her skills in reading the personality of others in their faces. Traveling across a wide and inhospitable valley where there was little provision or shelter available, the student met a man upon whose face was stamped the worst of all passions. In the leathery features of this man’s face, the student read greed, gluttony, lust, envy, anger, avarice, and foul intent.

But when the man approached the student, his face broke into a broad smile and with a warm, kind, and gentle voice he invited the student to stay with him and recover from the journey in his house. »It is but a simple place,« the man told her, »but you are most welcome to rest from the rigors of your journey. Relax here and make yourself at home. What’s mine is yours. Consider yourself my guest. Go no further tonight for the next village is far away.« The student was mightily confused by this. She feared that all her studies were wasted, that seven years of rigorous discipline was no more than the value of bottled air.

So in order to check her doubts and fears, the student accepted the invitation. Such was the intensity of the man’s desire to entertain his guest lavishly that the student found it extremely hard to leave. She was pampered with all kinds of sumptuous and tasty foods and delicacies. She was given the sweetest of aromatic nectars and the most fragrant of teas and infusions to drink. Finally, after several days, the student decided to leave. But when she prepared to mount her saddled horse, the man presented her with an envelope. »Here is your bill.«

The student was taken aback. »Bill? What are you talking about?« The geniality of the host’s face disappeared as swiftly as a rose in acid. He drew a wicked knife from his belt and thrust it towards the student’s face. His features returned to the malevolent aspect the student had first discerned. »Pay up, you cheating cheapskate. About to run off, were you? Thought you could get away without paying, eh? Do you think I’m made of money to provide you with all the best produce of this region for free? Typical scrounging student.«

The student, who had been caught totally by surprise at this vicious attack and was mesmerized by the dagger held at her throat, suddenly snapped out of her inertia. She opened the envelope and read the bill in which she was charged for everything she had and hadn’t eaten two hundred times over. The money demanded was a staggering sum, far more than the student had with her. But with a broad smile wreathing her face and a lightness in her movement, the student dismounted from the horse and gave it to his former host. She removed her fine hat and traveling cape and handed these over too.

And with joy in every step, the student continued her journey, celebrating with her each and every breath the fact that her seven years of education had not been wasted after all.