Maybe yes, maybe not......

A farmer and his son had a wonderful horse that helped the family earn a living. The farmer was old and he needed his son on the farm to help him with the work. One day, the horse ran away and all the neighbours said, “Your horse ran away, what terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe yes, maybe not. We’ll see.”

A few days later, the horse returned home, bringing with it another five horses. Now the farmer had six horses. The neighbours shouted out, “Your horse has returned, and brought another five horses home with him. What great luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe yes, maybe not. We’ll see.”

Later that week, the farmer’s son was riding one of the horses and it threw him to the ground, breaking his leg. The villagers cried, “Your son broke his leg, what terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe yes, maybe not. We’ll see.”

A few weeks later, soldiers from the national army marched through the town. They said all young men must join them and go to the army. They did not ask the farmer’s son because he had a broken leg.  Friends shouted, “Your boy is still here, what great luck!” To which the farmer replied, “Maybe yes, maybe not. We’ll see.”

The story gives us a useful lesson; we don’t know what’s going to happen – we just think we do!

Our brains automatically make up stories for us, imagining all sorts of things and most of the time we’re wrong!  In fact, it’s usually not  the thing that happens in our lives that gives us stress, disappointment, anger, happiness or joy. It’s how we think about these things. 

So, here’s the good news. You can change your situation by changing the way you think about it. Next time you imagine something bad happening just remember: 'Maybe yes, maybe not. We’ll see.'

Smart Moves

A

A man bought a first-class plane ticket and re-booked it 300 times in order to have free meals at the VIP lounge of an airport in Texas.

He used the ticket to gain access to the airport's VIP lounge, where travellers can eat for free, according to a local newspaper. The man showed his ticket to staff at the airport before his trip, ate a meal just like any first-class traveller and instead of boarding the flight he would change the departure date to another day. The next day, he would show up with his new ticket for the new date, eat and then change his ticket date again. He repeated this process multiple times.

The airport staff only understood this when they saw that his single ticket was re-booked 300 times over one year. Airline staff said there was nothing they could do to stop him because his ticket allowed him to change the departure date as many times as he wanted. They told the man that they knew what he was doing and that they would be watching him.  The man got angry and told them he didn’t want to fly with them and demanded they give him a refund for his ticket.  As a result, the airline had to refund him the cost of his ticket and cancel it.

B

A few days ago, I was traveling by bus and I heard an argument. An old man and the driver of the bus were arguing. The old man did not want to take a €5 note from the driver because it was torn. The driver said he didn’t have another note and that there was nothing wrong with it and the man could use it without any problem. The old man wasn’t happy. Suddenly, a young man, who just got on the bus, took out a new €5 note and told the old man that he can give him the torn note and take the new one. The old man was happy to do this. Then the young man used the torn note to pay the driver for his ticket.  The driver had no choice and took the note.  That was a clever move by the young man.

C

When I was at school, I usually went to the market with my father to buy things. There were two shops next to each other and they both sold fruit and vegetables.   The two shop owners were always  competing with each other.  If one sold potatoes for twenty cents the other would sell potatoes for eighteen cents.  This way my father used to feel very happy buying from them because he always bought from the shop which gave him the better price.  We used to laugh at their competition but we thought it was good for us, so we didn’t say anything. 

Last year one of the shop owners died and we went to his funeral. At the funeral we learnt that the two shopkeepers were actually real brothers and they never told us that.

The two brothers used to share the money from the shops and used to plan everything.

They used to take turns giving a better price so that customers thought they were getting a bargain.  We felt very foolish.