The Friendless Man
By Eric B.
Long ago, there a young man named Bei Wong. He was tall and thin, and also very poor. His only possession was a cage for his beloved pet bird. Mr. Wong had many friends, but his best friend was this magic bird that a friend had given him. He spent a lot of time talking to the bird. Mr. Wong lived on the streets of Hong Kong. Sometimes he would buy silkworms with the money he found and then he would sell the cocoons.
One day, when Mr. Wong was selling a couple of cocoons, he had a great idea, which was to open a silk factory. So the next morning, he went to his very wealthy friend to ask to borrow money for his project. The wealthy man agreed to loan him the money, provided he would pay him back within two years.
Two days later, Mr. Wong bought a building and hired workers for his silkworm factory, where he would raise them until they were ready to be sold. He made his workers work long, hard hours, and they received very little pay for their hard work. He had hired five friends to pick mulberry leaves and three other friends who were to feed the silkworms the leaves.
One afternoon, when Mr. Wong walked by one of these friends who was picking leaves. The friend said, "Good afternoon," but all Mr. Wong could think about was the money he was making. He did not even answer his friend. The next day, he increased the working hours for even more profit. The following day, when Mr. Wong walked by the same friend, the friend threw a rock at Mr. Wong instead of saying hello. And so did the other leaf-picking friends.
Two days later, Mr. Wong walked through the factory instead of the fields, so that he wouldn't get hit with rocks. When he entered, he told the workers that they were getting more silkworms to tend and would have to work even harder. The workers were not happy to hear this, because they were already working 16 hours a day. Mr. Wong bought the worms and when they arrived, he realized that the same amount of worms he had purchased were missing from his factory. When he asked the workers about this problem , they simply replied, "We don't know," and laughed as he walked away.
That night, he asked his friends if they would go to the local bar with him. The friends angrily responded, "No," because Mr. Wong made them work too hard during the day. They wanted to go home and have dinner with their families, if the families were not already asleep. So Mr. Wong went to the bar alone. He felt angry and kept murmuring to himself, "What did I do? What did I do wrong?"
The next day, when Mr. Wong walked into his office, he started talking to his bird. But when he asked the bird a question, the bird did not answer his question as usual. Instead, it started talking about how Mr. Wong wasn't thinking of anything but money, and was losing all his friends, including the bird. So even though Mr. Wong had a factory and was rich, he had no more friends because he had been so mean.
Proverb: If your only concern is profit, then you will have many enemies.