Three Brothers, Three Gifts: Who Really Understood Their Mother?

Three brothers once found themselves debating which of them had done the most for their elderly mother.

The eldest brother proudly said, “I built her an enormous mansion. She has so many rooms, she could use a different one every day of the year.”

The second brother responded, “I bought her a fleet of cars with drivers, so whenever she wants to go somewhere, someone is always available to take her.”

Then the youngest brother spoke.

“I don’t have as much money as either of you,” he said. “There wasn’t much I could afford to buy her. So I sent her a single Argentine peso coin. It was all the money I had.”

The second brother laughed.

“Don’t you read the financial news? What is Mom supposed to do with a peso? It’s worth almost nothing these days.”

The eldest brother immediately rebuked him.

“Really, my brother? Where is your respect for our mother?”

Some time later, a letter arrived from their mother.

“Thank you for your gifts, my beloved sons.

“To my eldest son, thank you for the beautiful mansion you built for me. But it is much too large for one person, and sometimes I feel lonely inside it.

“To my second son, thank you for all the cars and drivers. But even one car would have been more than enough for my weekly trip downtown.

“And to my youngest son, thank you so much! How did you remember the one thing missing from my beloved coin collection?”

Giving What Someone Truly Needs

Sometimes, we take pride in how much we give to another person. But without realizing it, we may be giving them what we would want rather than what they actually need.

True giving requires us to look beyond ourselves. What would make this particular person happy? What are they missing? What would mean something to them?

The answer may be completely different from what would matter to us.

A gift does not become meaningful because of how much it costs or how impressive it appears. Sometimes the smallest gift is the most precious of all, simply because it shows that we truly saw the person receiving it.

Perhaps that is one of the deepest forms of giving: not giving according to our own nature, but taking the time to understand someone else’s.