From the story of wrapping sticky rice...

(Baonghean) - My daughter came home from school and told me, "Huong stole my sticky rice today." Huong is in the same class as my daughter, is an orphan, and currently lives in the SOS Children's Village. She's thin, frail, and shy; every afternoon after school, I often see her trudging home alone. Looking into her eyes, I know she also longs to be picked up by her parents like her friends, like my daughter…

Every morning, when I take my daughter to school, I buy her a packet of sticky rice so she can eat it during her break. That day, my daughter left the packet in her desk drawer, but later found it in the hands of... Huong! And Huong was scooping up pieces of sticky rice and stuffing them into her mouth with an undisguised craving, even though her face clearly showed worry and guilt... My daughter asked, "Why did you eat my sticky rice?" Huong replied, "I picked it up from the ground, I don't know whose it was!" And, afterwards, my daughter demanded back the packet of sticky rice that Huong had eaten more than half of. Huong, both embarrassed and regretful, returned the packet to my daughter, turning away and hiding a childish tear.

My daughter commented, "Huong is a bad person, a thief." I asked, "Were you hungry then?" - "I wasn't very hungry, and I didn't want to eat!...". So why didn't you let Huong finish the sticky rice and then ask me to buy you another one? - "I didn't like it! The teacher said stealing is very bad, and Huong stole my sticky rice, so I have to get it back. Huong even lied; how could my sticky rice, which was tucked away in the back of my desk, have fallen to the ground?" But do you know that Huong is an orphan, rarely gets to eat sticky rice like you do? Not only that, Huong lacks many things compared to you. Are Huong's clothes and books as nice as yours? So why couldn't you give Huong a sticky rice when she was hungry and craving it? My daughter insisted, "If Huong asked me, I would give it to her, but Huong stole it! And stealing is very bad, everyone should criticize it, my teacher said so!"

The next morning, while taking my daughter to school, I bought two packets of sticky rice and told her, "Mom wants you to take one packet of sticky rice to Huong." And I kept thinking about this: The moral and ethical lessons we receive in school only reflect a few aspects of life. What we see and witness firsthand is only the phenomenon, the result of a process, of a series of events that happened before. Huong would never have stolen the sticky rice if she had received the same care and love from her parents as my daughter. And my daughter would never have asked for her sticky rice back if she understood that she was luckier than her friend, and more importantly – if she knew how to care for her friend… Love for humanity, sharing, tolerance, generosity, and forgiveness of others' mistakes are essential instilled in children. Otherwise, when they grow up, they will only know how to judge and punish, with cold hearts and shallow souls.

Hoai Quan