The Cookie Thief
A woman was waiting at an airport one night,
with several long hours before her flight.
She hunted for a book in the airport shops,
bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop.
She was engrossed in her book but happened to see,
that the man sitting beside her, as bold as could be
. . .grabbed a cookie or two from the bag in between,
which she tried to ignore to avoid a scene.
So she munched the cookies and watched the clock,
as the gutsy cookie thief diminished her stock.
She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by,
thinking, “If I wasn’t so nice, I would blacken his eye.”
With each cookie she took, he took one too,
when only one was left, she wondered what he would do.
With a smile on his face, and a nervous laugh,
he took the last cookie and broke it in half.
He offered her half, as he ate the other,
she snatched it from him and thought… oooh, brother.
This guy has some nerve and he’s also rude,
why he didn’t even show any gratitude!
She had never known when she had been so galled,
and sighed with relief when her flight was called.
She gathered her belongings and headed to the gate,
refusing to look back at the thieving ingrate.
She boarded the plane, and sank in her seat,
then she sought her book, which was almost complete.
As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise,
there was her bag of cookies, in front of her eyes.
If mine are here, she moaned in despair,
the others were his, and he tried to share.
Too late to apologize, she realized with grief,
that she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief.
The Cookie Thief, by Valerie Cox, Chicken Soup for the Soul
♥
In life, we invariably get into trouble because of our own assumptions that we take for granted. Maybe we should give others the benefit of the doubt. Maybe others have a good reason to do what they’re doing.
The woman in the poem simply assumed that the cookies were hers, and assumed the man was the culprit—enjoying her cookies without so much as a “May I” or a “Thank you”. She thought he was the cookie thief.
Too often, we are quick to judge based on our assumptions, only to realize that we had hastily jumped to conclusions without any idea of the whole picture.
Things aren’t always the way they appear. There are chances that we’re only seeing one side of things.
Why not keep an open mind?
Why not be a little more kind, a little less judgmental?
♥
#WednesdayWisdom is a series with short bursts of easy-to-consume wisdom in the form of stories, quotes, anecdotes, and humor.
9 comments
Haha! How often we are the cookie thieves, no?
I love these nuggets of Wednesday Wisdom you share, Vidya! They do make me sit up and take notice of my behaviour, my attitude. 🙂 Keep it coming!
I saw where this was going, having read similar true stories! And I like the poetic format. It’s a perfect, poignant parable with an apt saying at the end. Namaste, my dear.
This is a very good poem and I didn’t expect the end so a great teaching tool. We often do assume someone was being rude or mean when the other person has no clue. I do my best not to assume but I am human and I know I have been that cookie thief but I am glad that, sometimes, I can apologize. Funny, when I was younger I was very shy and wouldn’t talk much because of being so badly bullied. I talked to a couple of people, later on, and I fo7nd that man6 thought I was a snooty bitch…they mistook my shyness for snootiness. One can only do the best that we can and learn not to judge
This.Is.So.True and exactly what I spoke about in my gratitude post as well this time 🙂
I don’t judge anyone for their behaviour these days. Not once. I have no idea what battles they are facing. We must always be kind. Always.
Such a beautiful poem, isn’t it? I smiled when I first read it a few years ago and I smiled again today. Thank you Vidya. Hope you are on the road to recovery!
This is such a beautiful and meaningful story..We really make our own lives miserable assuming things. We break relationships on assumptions.
The stories you share are so light and witty to read but are full of such a larger message. I remember seeing an enactment of this story by Shabana Azmi and Naseerudding Shah in a short film – that interpretation took my breathe away!
I love the larger message you have pointed out to – if only tolerance could be coded into our DNA, the human race as a whole would be the nicest one on Earth!!!
Shalini, I remember that story with Shabana and Naseeruddin. In a restaurant. It was Dus Kahaniyaan, right?
In fact, this concept has been borrowed by various films, especially in comedy scenes.
Thank you for your kind words. I thought the story and message format would work better than just the message.
Vidya Sury recently posted…I binge-watched Amazon Prime Original Breathe. Did you?
I loved that poem! Yes so many times in our lives we are too quick to judge others but end up being the culprits ourselves.
Lovely post and i loved that poem !!