Today, an elderly, unkept man approached me at breakfast. I gave
him three fivers. He shifted his eyes to mine and mumbled “dinner
is twenty”. I was struck by the incongruity of his assumption that my
gift had opened the door for more! In some unpleasantness, I said,
what to him, what must have seemed a non sequitur, ”And a room is
one hundred”. Suddenly I was irritated and walked away! I was born
and raised on extensive cattle ranch. One of the local bits of wisdom was
“Never look a gift horse in the mouth!” For the unknowing, a perfectly
fine-looking horse shows his age ONLY by the absence of some of his
teeth! I am, now, several hours later, still concerned as to whether it was
uncaring to dismiss him as I did?
Sets us to thinking in the best way xoxoox
Not uncaring, uncaring would have been to ignore him all together. You gave what you wanted and no more. My take away is give what you want without hope of a thank you, if you get one great:)