Father Delany was walking home after his sermon late one night when he came upon an intoxicated tramp on the sidewalk. Wanting to help, he asked the man, "Do you live here?" "Yes," the man slowly replied.
"Would you like me to help you upstairs?" the father asked.
"Yes," the man slowly sputtered. When they got up to the second floor, the father asked, "Is this your floor?" "Yes," the man again replied.
Then Father Delany got to thinking that may be he didn't want to face man's irate wife because she might think he was the one who got the man drunk. So he opened the first door he came to and shoved him through it, then went back downstairs.
Lo and behold, when the father went back outside, there was a tramp lying on the sidewalk. So he asked this man, "Do you live here?" "Yes."
"Would you like me to help you upstairs?" "Yes."
So he did and pushed him in the same door with the first tramp. Then the father went back downstairs, where, to his surprise, there was yet ANOTHER tramp!
Before the priest got to this one, though, the tramp staggered over to a policeman and cried, "For God's sake offisher, protect me from this man. He'sh been doing nothing all night long but taking' me upstairsh and throwing me down the elevator shaft!"
Our over-enthusiasm to be of help can sometimes cause untold difficulties for others, as in the case of the boy scout forcefully helping the unwilling old lady to cross the street; worse still, it can even cause positive harm as in this case.
Indian Thoughts Archives
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