Shame

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Flipping all of this around ...

Character is to *not* do something "shameful" in private just because nobody happens to be able to see it at that moment.

A Buddhist item read in my youth, never forgotten.

A holy man had several young disciples.

One day he called them and said, "We are hungry, and the people of the town are not willing to give to us of their charity. Each of you must go into town. Keep your eyes open, and if you see food and thee is no one around to see, take it and bring it here."

The disciples said to one another, "If the teacher tells us to steal, it must be a right thing to do."

They went into town, dispersed, and one by one came back to their master.

One had a bowl of rice, one had some spiced meat, one had ripe fruit - each brought something.

But then the last came hom - empty-handed.

The master frowned. "Did I not send you for food? Why have you brought nothing?"

The sisciple said, "Master, you said to take food if there was no one to see. But wherever I went, I was there watching."

And the master smiled.

Well, in many cases I would not think there is much or any truth in a book, but I might have a sort of morbid curiosity as to its contents and the thought processes of the author.