A funny story has been widely shared online, told by the owner of a bakery in a working-class neighborhood in Cairo. He said, “I have spent almost my entire life in this bakery. Its smell is a part of me. I have seen generations grow up before my eyes, and my memory holds many faces, including that of an old man dressed in respectable but old-fashioned clothes. He used to come around 2:00 pm, stand apart from the queue with his hands in his pockets and watch the people waiting, but never join them.
It seemed as if he was rubbing something inside his pockets, perhaps coins. And he would leave without buying any bread. His face showed he was hungry, but he couldn’t afford even a few loaves. One day, I decided to help him without hurting his dignity. I called out to him with a big smile and congratulated him, telling him he was the 100th customer of the day, which meant he had won two loaves of bread and a bag of dates. The man blushed and quietly said that he hadn’t bought anything. I told him it didn’t matter and handed him the bags. He took them with trembling hands, a tear lingering in his eye and a faint smile flickering across his face. To avoid hurting his pride, I began holding many fake competitions, once to celebrate the bakery’s anniversary, and another to mark an increase in the amount of dough we had in the bakery.
Over time, I noticed widows, students, and poor laborers coming to the bakery to receive free bread. One day, a woman saw me giving the fake prize to a student. She quietly placed some money on the table and said it was her contribution to the 100th customer competition. So I decided to put up a small sign on the shop door that read, ‘Today, 50 loaves are available for free for the first customers.’
Over time, the project grew, and some people began buying ten loaves and donating the same number to the poor. Even children and workers participated in supporting the free bread initiative. The bakery became a symbol of charity, preserving the dignity of those in need.” The entire story is 100% fictional, adapted with some changes from a similar story I read more than ten years ago about a café in Venice, whose owner performed the same “charitable” act. I wrote an article about that wonderful humanitarian idea.
On my first visit to Venice, I was hosted by a Venetian friend who had been married to a remarkable Kuwaiti woman before he passed away. I asked him to take me to that humanitarian café. He laughed heartily and said, “That’s an old myth. We Venetians are known for two things - our love of commerce and our penchant for thrift. Perhaps that was why William Shakespeare was inspired to create the character of Shylock in his famous play ‘The Merchant of Venice’. So, the idea of free coffee, as advertised on the wall, is neither part of our culture nor our customs.”
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Golden advice: Don’t believe 92.5 percent of what you read on the internet.
By Ahmad alsarraf
e-mail: [email protected]
e-mail: [email protected]
