There was a proud young man. An old man who was cleaning up the flowerbed of the village called out when the young man passed by.
“Young man, could you pour some water on this soil?”
The young man wanted to pass by, but he was reluctant to do it because the man was a well respected elder in the village. But the soil was hard, so pouring water was of no use. The water could not get into the soil and kept running down the side. The young man’s face got darker and darker.
The old man was watching. He went over to the young man and hammered the soil. Then he gathered the broken pieces of the soil and told the young man to water it again. The water soaked into the soil that got much softer.
Then the old man said,
“Water can’t soak into hard soil. People are the same. Seeds can’t be sown in a proud heart. If you want to bloom flowers and bear fruit, you must first soften your heart. Don’t forget.”