' … One day, two of Her Children were walking along a road when an old man appeared in the distance. Torn rags hung of his crooked form, and upon his back there rested a rotting knapsack.

"Let us kill him and rob him," sneered one Brother, "He is far weaker than us, and therefore what he has is rightfully ours. He does not deserve to live."

The second brother agreed, and as one they knocked the old man upon the earth, and tore his knapsack from him. Together the Brothers beat him full sore, but never a sound did he make. When the old man lay dead, the Brothers turned out his knapsack, yet all it contained was papers. The Brothers had never taken the time to learn to read, and so they left the old man's papers lying in the road, and returned home to their Family.

When they arrived at Home, they found their Mother waiting for them. "Oh my Children, why did you murder the old man?"

"But, Mother, you have always taught us not to suffer the unworthy. The old man could barely stand, and so was obviously not worthy."

"But my Children, have you not also been taught not to kill without reason? The man had no riches, as you could well see, and so there was no need for his death. As for his worth, he was old, and so had lost the strength of the body." She then produced the old man's papers. "But see, the words he has written show him to be a great scholar. His worth was of the mind, hidden from your shallow sight, but true nonetheless.

"Since you value strength of mind so little, you obviously have no need of your own."

Then the Mother turned away from Her Children, and their minds fled from their bodies like sand from an hourglass, and they thought no more.'