Story of the Honey-seller
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Sadi and Edwards, A. Hart
A man of smiling countenance sold honey, captivating the hearts of all by his pleasant manner. His customers were as numerous as flies around the sugar-cane—if he had sold poison people would have bought it for honey.
A forbidding-looking man regarded him with envy, being jealous of the way his business prospered. One day he paraded the town with a tray of honey on his head and a scowl on his face. He wandered about crying his wares, but no one evinced desire to buy. At nightfall, having earned no money, he went and sat dejectedly in a corner, with a face as bitter as that of a sinner fearful of retribution.
The wife of one of his neighbours jokingly remarked: “Honey is bitter to one of sour temper.”
It is wrong to eat bread at the table of one whose face is as wrinkled with frowns as the cloth on which it is served.
O sir! add not to thine own burdens, for an evil temper brings disaster in its train.
If thou hast not a sweet tongue like Sadi, thou hast neither gold nor silver.