The man with shaking hands

Our memory is tricky. Often, my parents tell me sweet stories from when I was little. I love the stories, but I don’t remember them. Sometimes I feel as though they imagine these events. Still, some things will remain in our minds no matter how old we grow—certain happenings from our youth that left a mark on us.

I remember one time when I was about ten years old. I went to the city center with my mom. It was a warm summer’s day, and I wanted an ice cream cone. For my mother, it was hard to resist spoiling me no matter how little money she had. When I got my lovely ice cream, I enjoyed it like it was the first and the last I’d ever receive. After doing all she needed to do in the city, we returned home. The child in me was greedy, and I asked my mother for yet another ice cream.
“You’ve already had one,” my mother said.
“I know, but I want another,” I replied immediately.
“Two ice creams may hurt your tummy,” she told me in a caring tone.
I kept asking. “Please, can I have another one?” I said, convinced another delicious ice cream wouldn’t hurt.
“I don’t have any more money, my dear,” she told me calmly.
At last, I stopped complaining. I know I reacted like many children would in that situation.
Eventually, I understood my mother’s point and stopped my constant complaining. Before reaching our building, an older man with a peculiar walk came toward us. I noticed his hands were shaking to make me assume he had a medical condition. He was mumbling something, but I couldn’t understand what. My mum looked at him and then handed him some money. It strangely appeared to be the exact value of ice cream.
“You wouldn’t buy me another ice cream, but you gave money to a stranger. Why? You said you didn’t have any money.” The child in me became frustrated and now had a good reason to complain.
“We don’t have a lot of money, but from the little that we do have, we should always help people in need.”
I don’t know how much I understood at the time about the meaning of ‘A good deed for a good cause,’ but I noticed that something wasn’t right with that man, so I stopped moaning.
 
We reached home, and a few minutes later, I went outside to play in the local park. On the way, I passed a bar. It was summer, and I don’t believe air conditioning existed those days, so the doors were wide open. Curiously, I looked inside and immediately recognized somebody. I turned my head and looked again as I thought, what a funny coincidence. Do you think you can guess who it was that I saw? Yes, it was the older man with the funny shaking hands. Only this time, his hands weren’t shaking at all! I know I wasn’t mistaken; he was drinking from a glass, and his right hand held the drink steadily and without difficulty. I was generally a calm and well-behaved child, but that made me so angry that I went back to my mother and told her what I had just seen. She told me that he was most likely an alcoholic, and not having had a drink lately was the cause of his hands shaking. She couldn’t have known this when she handed him the money. My mother just wanted to do a good deed.
 
I couldn’t see it then, but I do see it now, and I know I would do the same in that situation. Sometimes we are fooled by appearances. We should never be sorry if we later discover that we were mistaken while doing a good deed. The need to help should be our first reaction, and offering help should be the genuine manifestation of being a good human as our parents taught us to be.
 
Sometimes, we may discover we helped the wrong person, but that should not be a reason to stop helping other people in need, even though some fooled us. If you want to do good, there are opportunities everywhere. Don’t let the fools spoil your good heart.
 
Be good! Do good! Stay good!