The Sun and the Wind

(Old Story by Dm. Ushinsky)

Once upon a time the Sun and the mean, cold Northern Wind started arguing about which one of them was stronger. They argued for a long time, and finally decided to test their powers on a traveler, that happened to be riding his horse at that time.

"Look," said the wind, "I'll catch up to him, and rip off his coat."

He started to blow as hard as he could. But the harder the Wind blew, the more the traveler wrapped his coat around himself and continued to ride down the road, thinking how horrible the weather was. The wind got angrier and threw down some rain and snow. The poor traveler, cursing the weather, put on his coat and tied the belt. The Wind, knowing that he will never have the coat, gave up.

The Sun, seeing the Wind's failure, smiled, came out from behind the clouds, warmed and dried the ground, along with the poor traveler. Feeling the warmth, the traveler blessed the Sun and took off his coat himself and tied it to his saddle.

"See," said the kind Sun to the Wind," with goodness and caring you can do a lot more than with anger."

[from http://www.stmarkorthodox.org]