A Gentle Man

There was once a gentle man who sought to cause no harm. He gave to the poor, and
he gave to the rich. The man was a listener, a caretaker, and had a selfless soul that brightened
the lives of all beings he encountered. His travels caused for him to have many followers, but
also many enemies.
Less gentle beings grew jealous of the love he received. They couldn't fathom why the
people followed him as the people had never followed them. The malicious beings thought,
‘There is no way a man could be so gentle. We will find in him the darkness that is in all human
beings.’ And so they gathered together. They soon formulated a plan to break this selfless man.
Little did they know, there was no such darkness in this kind man, but break him they indeed
would.
The less gentle beings decided to take advantage of his kind heart, they would put him
through different tests. The first of the less gentle beings was a young man who had gone into
great fortune through many evil deeds. He knew no dark-hearted man could resist the call of
greed. He searched for many days until he finally found his target. The greedy boy saw a sight
that confused him greatly: the selfless man was giving a dirty beggar many gold coins. Why any
man should give wealth to such filth was beyond him, but he approached the man nonetheless.
“I hear that you are a selfless man, but I find that hard to believe. The next time a beggar
approaches you, you must refuse to give them anything. If you do that, then I will pay you in a
thousand gold bars. Enough to live like a king.” The young man smirked, knowing full well that
not a single person could deny that kind of offer. He was wrong.
The gentle man gently replied, “Why would I refuse a soul in need. I have no wish for
things such as gold. I only need the clothes on my back and the heart in my chest. With only
these simple things I can live in peace, and is the search for peace not the eternal search of
man?”
“Huff, humph, puh.” Sputtered a flabbergasted young man as he never thought to hear
such an absurd notion. Although, maybe the notion wasn’t so absurd. He sat down heavily as
the young man thought deeply. Knowing he needed time to sort out his thoughts, the selfless
man kindly waited until he was once again required to give his services. He could not wait too
long though, for others were in need of his help. The selfless man soon left his new found friend
(as he called all new people he met) to attend to the others.
Once a man full of greed is forced to think of things more important to him than his
treasures, he is wont to getting angered easily. It is because of this quick anger that, in a fit of
frustration, he ran back to the other cruel beings shouting how the selfless man could not be
broken. The other two beings snickered. ‘How weak this less gentle being must be,’ they
thought. They would not be so weak.
The second of the vicious beings was sure in his ability to darken this man’s heart. This
time it was an older man with a bit of blood on his hands. He had witnessed that under the
threat of death, a person would do anything. Surely he was right, a man could not value other
lives more than his own. Well, he too was wrong. He found the kind man at a far quicker pace
than the first of the less gentle beings had.
“I hear that you are a kind man, but that is very hard to believe. There is no such thing as
true kindness in a man. I’m sure that should your life be threatened, the darkness is certain to
show." The old man produced a dagger, it's sharp point glinting in the light, and he held it
unceremoniously to the kind man's face.
“I do not fear you, my dear friend.” The kind man replied kindly.
The older man forced the knife closer to the kinder being’s unshaven face, “I could kill
you right now if I wanted to.”
“You could kill me and that is true, I would never wish to deny you that right, but I must
first ask, what would you gain from my death? If I die then I will be dead, and that is of no help
to anyone truly. If you kill me, well you would always be on the run from those that seek
redemption. But I will let you kill me. If the ending of my life is what will bring you peace then I
will gladly sacrifice myself for your true happiness.” And with that he placed the point of the
older man’s knife against his chest and held his arms wide to accept his death.
The older man was baffled at what he had just witnessed. Surely he must be bluffing. No
man could be so willing to sacrifice himself. Could it be that this man was as selfless as they
say? Truly, no words could illustrate his surprise.
‘Perhaps it is possible to have a heart without darkness,’ the older man thought. He
never had dreamed it possible, but he had witnessed it before his very eyes. With this horrid
realization the man fled back to the other beings of darkness to inform them of the man whose
heart could not be stripped of its golden shell.
The third of the lesser beings tisked at the others’ foolishness. ‘Such weaklings they
must be,’ she thought, knowing she was the only one capable of breaking such a man. This
dreadful being was an old lady who had grown bitter and cruel over the years of her life. The old
woman was also a clever lady. His gentle heart would be the end of him. She understood how
to break such a man, for she too was once the same. She knew what made a golden heart
snap.
 The older woman waited before she initiated her plan, a devious smile wrinkling her
once gentle face. It wouldn’t do to make the man too suspicious.
It was on a beautifully bright day that the old crone hobbled over to her more gentle
counterpart and lightly tapped him on the shoulder.
“I hear you are a gentle man, but I have a hard time believing it possible.” The man had
heard that line before, a tiny sliver of distrust had snuck into his trusting soul as he turned
around to face the old woman.
‘Yes I am indeed a gentle man, as I am a kind man, and a selfless man. I must ask
though, lovely grandmother, would you know of the two men before you, who sought to test their
disbeliefs?”
“I wish nought for you to distrust me, I am in grave need of help. It is because of this that
I will speak honestly, I know nothing of the men before me. Why they would test you is surely
beyond my understanding. I only needed help, and had hoped you were the man the kind
people of my village ask about. I see that I must be wrong. How could a young man with so
much distrust in his heart, also be gentle like they say?”
“I had no wish to cause you such pain, I will do whatever I can to help a kind soul such
as yourself.”
It was then that the least gentle of all other beings began spinning her fantastic tale. It
was a tale of her son that was gravely ill. She spent long years seeking a gentle hand to soothe
her son, so that he may get better. While it is in fact true that the old lady had a son who was
very sick, she really had no intention of him getting better. She was the one who had poisoned
him herself.
Leading the kind man to her home, she showed him to her son. Her only child lay upon a
dusty bed, ripped blankets covering his shriveled body. Her son shivered, and curled up closer
to what warmth he had left. It was a pitiful sight indeed. The gentle man kneeled down before
the sickly youth, though he was not much younger than the kind man himself. He placed his
loving hands on the shaking husk of what was once a lively soul, and calmly cooed comforts to
the lad.
With sorrow aching in his heart, the gentle man quietly spoke to the old crone, “I am
sorry, but I don’t believe there is much that can be done for your son. I wish you much
happiness to live out your days, and hope you can survive through the pain of losing your child.”
“Oh, worry not, I will have no pain when this wretched filth is gone from my life.” With a
swift blow, she ended the life of her only son. The gentle man stared in horror at what she had
just done. He could not believe that a mother could kill her own child. The cruelest of beings
mulled over the reaction of the younger man. “Hmm, I should have known that wouldn’t be
enough to break you,” She huffed, pulling her body away from the corpse that was once her
son. She began to pull out the knife when she took another look at the kind man that lay at the
end of her dead son's bed. The man started to cry many tears as he clutched his body and
moaned. “Oh? Perhaps you were weaker than I had thought.” The old crone commented when
his body began to shake.
This was too much for the being of light that had been previously blind to much of the
world’s horrors. The man broke, finally seeing the world for all of its cruelty. He ran from the evil
being’s home, disappearing from humanity. The people that once followed him so feverishly
were not surprised, though disappointed, for this harsh world will never have a place for a gentle
man.