(Clearwisdom.net)
This is a true story. It happened during the Japanese invasion of China in Jiaocheng, Shanxi Province.
At that time, all men in the village were forced by the Japanese to do arduous labor, building implements of warfare. Constant cries of agony from workers on the labor site could be heard. Frequently, those who were severely beaten until they were black and blue all over and those who were bitten by dogs were sent back to the village. Villager A had never been a worker on the labor site before. Upon hearing any kind of talk about ill treatment of laborers by the Japanese, he would say something like, "Well, it is all because they didn't do a good job for the Japanese. If you are doing a good job, they won't treat us like that."
Finally one day, Villager A was sent to the labor site to work. When he was leaving, villagers all said to him, "Do a good job, avoid being beaten up!" Villager A responded, "I am sure no one will beat me up."
Villager A was so diligent at work the first day, sweating all over. Naturally, he wiped the sweat off his face while he held his spade. Then a Japanese wolfhound jumped on him, tearing apart his clothes. He was bitten terribly all over, and was unable to move.
Villager A was also sent back to the village. With villagers looking upon him, his eyes filled with tears and he said, "They were so bad. Never again will I say that someone got beaten up because he didn't do his job well.
In fact, in the eyes of a tyrant, your obedience is exactly the thing that stimulates their cruelty. Every person of conscience should not consider other's unfair treatment as irrelevant to himself. If you let the evil go on, one day you will be surprised to find out that the one that is suffering may actually be you.
Category: Perspective
