A long time ago in Chi­na, a girl named Li-Li got mar­ried & went to live with her hus­band and mother-in-law. In a very short time, Li-Li found that she couldn't get along with her mother-in-law at all. Their per­so­na­li­ties were very dif­fe­rent, and Li-Li was ange­red by many of her mother-in-law's habits. In addi­ti­on, she cri­ti­ci­zed Li-Li constantly.

Days pas­sed and weeks pas­sed. Li-Li and her mother-in-law never stop­ped arguing and fight­ing. But what made the situa­ti­on even worse was that, accor­ding to anci­ent Chi­ne­se tra­di­ti­on, Li-Li had to bow to her mother-in-law and obey her every wish. All the anger and unhap­pi­ness in the hou­se was caus­ing Li-Li's poor hus­band gre­at distress.

Final­ly, Li-Li could not stand her mother-in-law's bad tem­per and dic­ta­tor­ship any lon­ger, and she deci­ded to do some­thing about it. Li-Li went to see her father's good fri­end, Mr. Huang, who sold herbs. She told him the situa­ti­on and asked if he would give her some poi­son so that she could sol­ve the pro­blem once and for all. Mr. Huang thought for a while, and final­ly said, "Li-Li, I will help you sol­ve your pro­blem, but you must listen to me and obey what I tell you."
Li-Li said, "Yes, Mr. Huang, I will do wha­te­ver you tell me to do."

Mr. Huang went into the back room, and retur­ned in a few minu­tes with a packa­ge of herbs. He told Li-Li, "You can't use a quick-acting poi­son to get rid of your mother-in-law, becau­se that would cau­se peo­p­le to beco­me sus­pi­cious. The­r­e­fo­re, I have given you a num­ber of herbs that will slow­ly build up poi­son in her body. Every other day prepa­re some deli­cious meal and put a litt­le of the­se herbs in her ser­ving. Now, in order to make sure that nobo­dy suspect you. When she dies, you must be very careful to act very fri­end­ly towards her. Don't argue with her, obey her every wish, and tre­at her like a queen."

Li-Li was so hap­py. She than­ked Mr. Huang and hur­ried home to start her plot of mur­de­ring her mother-in-law. Weeks went by and months went by, and every other day, Li-Li ser­ved the spe­ci­al­ly trea­ted food to her mother-in-law. She remem­be­red what Mr. Huang had said about avo­i­ding sus­pi­ci­on, so she con­trol­led her tem­per, obey­ed her mother-in-law, and trea­ted her like her own mother. After six months had pas­sed, the who­le hou­se­hold had chan­ged. Li-Li had prac­ti­ced con­trol­ling her tem­per so much that she found that she almost never got mad or upset.

She hadn't had an argu­ment with her mother-in-law in six months becau­se she now see­med much kin­der and easier to get along with. The mother-in-law's atti­tu­de toward Li-Li chan­ged, and she began to love Li-Li like her own daugh­ter. She kept tel­ling fri­ends and rela­ti­ves that Li-Li was the best daugh­ter-in-law one could ever find. Li-Li and her mother-in-law were now trea­ting each other like a real mother and daugh­ter. Li-Li's hus­band was very hap­py to see what was happening.

One day, Li-Li came to see Mr. Huang and asked for his help again. She said, "Dear Mr. Huang, plea­se help me to keep the poi­son from kil­ling my mother-in-law! She's chan­ged into such a nice woman, and I love her like my own mother. I do not want her to die becau­se of the poi­son I gave her."

Mr. Huang smi­led and nod­ded his head. "Li-Li, there's not­hing to worry about. I never gave you any poi­son. The herbs I gave you were herbs to impro­ve her health. The only poi­son was in your mind and your atti­tu­de toward her, but that has been all washed away by the love which you gave to her."

The­re is a wise Chi­ne­se saying:
"The per­son who loves others will also be loved in return."

---

[via John G.]

das alte Bän­kel­lied "Marie­chen saß wei­nend im Gar­ten" gleich eine ganz aktu­el­le Bedeu­tung ....