The Old Man and His Betel Leaves

Lesson on Enjoying Life

There was once a wealthy old man who had the habit of chewing betel leaves. Every day without failing, he would remove all the betel leaves from his box, carefully align them in the order of increasing freshness before segregating and putting most of the fresh leaves back into the box. He would then take the withered and soon-to-be withered leaves to satisfy his daily cravings. "I will keep these the fresh ones for the next day," he thought to himself.

Being a wealthy man, he could afford a servant and among many other things the servant was supposed to do for his meagre pay, he also had to put in fresh supply of betel leaves inside the box before calling it a day.

This peculiar daily inspection and segregation of the betel leaves by the old man and thereafter replenishment by the servant continued until the old man died. Even in his last day, the old man had kept the most of the fresh betel leaves for the next day which ultimately never came.

As part of his funeral rites, the priest took several fresh betel leaves from the box to be provided to the deceased. "Stop it right there !" , the old man's son shouted. He continued ,"My father had never favoured the fresh betel leaves. Please do not dishonour his body. Kindly take these withered betel leaves". The once wealthy old man was cremated with the withered betel leaves.

If you had not realised this fact by now, perhaps you have something in common with the poor old man - he had never tasted fresh betel leaves in his life, despite coming to hold them in his possession, for he had always kept the fresh leaves away and craved on the withered ones.

I do not know what your 'betel leaves' are but if you come to be in possession of them, do not be afraid to savour them. If you don't take pleasures in living, you are only fooling yourself.

Credit : This story was verbally narrated by Philosopher Sukki Sivam during an event in KL early this year.