Powerful Story ...

I heard this story last week ... quite powerful ... enjoy!

The Old Man and the Children
Once upon a time there was an old hermit who lived near a village. There were many stories and rumours about the hermit. These stories all spoke of the wisdom of the hermit. The children of the town enjoyed visiting this wise man and would spend countless hours trying to think of ways to stump him. They were never able to stump him.

One day they were determined to find a question that he could not answer. They captured a bird and said, "Now we will go to the old man and ask him what we have in our hands.” They did not think he would be able to tell it was a bird. But if he did they would ask “Is it alive or dead?’

And if the old man replies that the bird is dead we will uncup our hands and the bird will fly away and the old man will be wrong. If the old man replies that the bird is alive, we will simply crush the bird to death, and the old man will still be wrong."

The boldest of the children knocked on the door. The old man answered. The boy holding the bird said “What am I holding in my hands?” The old man watched carefully and saw a small feather wafting behind the boy’s back and so he answered “It is a bird.” The children were amazed! The boy then asked the second question, “Is it dead or alive?"

After a moment of deep thought, the old man looked at each of the children and stopped at the boy holding the bird. Looking into his eyes, the old man replied, "Young man, the answer is in your hands."