act with an honest heart

Once, there was a farmer who regularly sold a pound of butter to a baker. One day, the baker decided to weigh the butter to see if he was getting the right amount. Upon checking, he found that he wasn’t. Angry about this, he took the farmer to court.

The judge asked the farmer if he was using any measure to weigh the butter. The farmer replied, “Honor, I am primitive. I don’t have a proper measure, but I do have a scale.”

The judge asked, “Then how do you weigh the butter?”

The farmer replied, “Your Honor, long before the baker started buying butter from me, I have been buying a pound loaf of bread from him. Every day when the baker brings the bread, I put it on the scale and give him the same weight in butter. If anyone is to be blamed, it is the baker.”

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Whether it be life or work, what we give determines what we get. We all live in a world of cause and effect. We can’t escape karma. When we act with an honest heart and do our best, the Universe brings us equivalent rewards and positive outcomes, and when we lie and cheat, the Universe brings us equivalent negative consequences. 

Honesty is the best policy indeed. What goes around comes around, period. And that’s why we must ensure that we cultivate the virtue of honesty and make it a daily habit. 

In other words, there’s no point in acting dishonestly. Because when we deceive others, we end up deceiving ourselves as well.