Wisdom story: To who does the "gift" belong to when no one accepts it?

Some time ago in a village near the capital city of Japan, lived an old samurai who put his fighting days behind him. One day when the old samurai was conducting a class for his students, one young warrior, who was famous for his rudeness and cruelty, approached the samurai wanting to challenge him to a duel. When the old samurai didn’t accept the challenge the young samurai used his tactic of shaming and rudeness. In Japan, honor means a lot and people are willing to die to uphold their honor. The young samurai knew that and he used this knowledge against better opponents by blinding them with rage. In that state, his opponents made mistakes in fights and ended up dead.

Since insulting words of the young samurai didn’t evoke rage in the old master he decided to throw stones at him. After that had no effect he started spitting at him. When that still didn’t work the young samurai was outraged and pulled out his sword. But still, the old master didn’t react and continued on with his lesson. The young samurai knew that he couldn’t hurt the old master if he didn’t accept the challenge. It was the law. Killing a man in a challenge was not a crime, otherwise, it was a crime punishable by death. The young samurai continued to insult the old master the whole day in front of the whole class. At the end of the day, the young samurai was tired, irritated and felt ashamed that his plan failed. So he set off home feeling defeated.

The old samurai’s students were amazed that the old man withstood so many offensive insults, and asked him: “Why did you not accept his challenge of a fight? Surely you weren’t afraid of him?” And the old samurai replied: “If someone comes to you with a gift and you refuse to accept it, who does the gift belong to?”

“It’s former owner,” said one of the students. “The same applies to envy, hatred and rude words. As long as you do not accept them, they belong to the person who carried them in their own mind in the first place. And with that lesson my dear students we end this day,” said the old samurai.