One precious hour

    

A man came home from work late, tired and irritated, to find his 8-year old son waiting for him at the door.

“Daddy, may I ask you a question?”

“Yeah sure, what is it?” replied the man.

“Daddy, how much do you make an hour?”

“That is none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?” the man said angrily.

“I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?” Pleaded the little boy.

“If you must know, I make 1000 rupees an hour.”

“Oh,” the little boy replied, with his head down. Looking up, he said, “Daddy, may I please borrow 500 rupees?”

The father was furious, “If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I work long hard hours everyday and don’t have time for such this childish behavior!”

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door.

The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy’s questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money? After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think he may have been a little hard on his son. Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that 500 rupees and he really didn’t ask for money very often.

The man went to the door of the little boy’s room and opened the door.

“Are you asleep, son?” he asked.

“No daddy, I’m awake,” replied the boy.

“I’ve been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier,” said the man. “It’s been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you, I am sorry. Here’s the 500 rupees you asked for.”

The little boy sat straight up, smiling. “Oh, thank you daddy!” he yelled.

Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some money.

The man, seeing that the boy already had money, started to get angry again.

The little boy slowly counted out his money, then looked up at his father.

“Why do you want more money if you already have some?” the father grumbled.

“Because I didn’t have enough, but now I do,” the little boy replied. “Daddy, I have 1000 rupees now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you.”

It’s just a short reminder to all of us working so hard in life. We should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts.