Thou shall not harm others...neither shall allow others to harm thou

Am now reading a book by 劉墉 called "超越自己﹐肯定自己﹐ 創造自己". Only started a few chapters so far, really can relate to what he said.

In one of the stories, he told of a traveller who befriended a fellow passenger. Upon disembarking, his new-found friend said he had too many luggages to carry and asked him to help him carry one of them. He agreed, but as they were exiting the customs, he was stopped by officers who found drugs in his "friend's" luggage which he helped carry. He screamed innocence but his "friend" had disappeared by then. He was eventually charged in court for attempting to smuggle drugs. That's what you get for being helpful.

This author does not stand on a moral high-horse and preach that one should always help those in distress. Instead, he believes "害人之心不可有﹐防人之心不可無", which means that you should never think about harming others, but that doesn't mean you should let down your guard and think that others will not cause harm to you. Not asking to turn your back against every request lah, just that one must be sensible and rational even when it comes to helping friends. He quoted another example of asking a long-time friend who was travelling overseas to help him deliver a package. His friend agreed to it, but he requested to open the package and take a look. His friend didn't mean any offence, just that in today's times when even family members kill each other for money, nothing is ever for sure. If you don't even want to protect yourself, who is going to do that for you? Wake up candy-eyed ones, this world is realistic lah...正所謂, "人不為己﹐天誅地滅".

Quote you some of his other interesting stories next time...