Soul Lessons

Scene One

The Bank

I am overjoyed to see that there are only a few customers due to the early hour. I join the slightly amorphous queue for my transaction.

A slightly elderly lady cuts ahead of me taking advantage of the shapelessness of the "queue". She studiously avoids my annoyed gaze.

Someone whispers in my head, "She is giving you a chance to be a better person". I look at the side of her head and forgive her for her action. I am probably inconvenienced by an additional five minutes, but it's okay. I have another transaction at the bank and that is completed very pleasantly and efficiently. I am satisfied.

Scene Two

The Village Office

The queue here is enormous. I hand my old land tax receipt to the peon who finds the correct register and places the receipt as a bookmark on the right page. He puts my register beside another tall stack at the working clerk's side. I am not even in the first stack! Plan to stay for at least one hour here.

A man walks in two minutes after me, gets his register found, then coolly takes it from the peon and places it plump in front of the harried clerk with a murmured request. The clerk makes a nominal protest, "It's difficult when you plague me with such requests when such a lot of people are already in queue", but processes the guy's transaction quickly and lets him go anyway.

This time I don't even bother with getting annoyed and then forgiving. I am calm. 

Two minutes later, a tardy employee arrives. The first clerk moves to another seat and takes the tall stack of registers with him. The new clerk takes the first register in the smaller pile and proceeds to accept my land tax. I am out in 5 more minutes.

Coincidence? I don't think so. I believe it was the reward for a lesson well learned. I rode on a smile all the way home...