An archer was giving a demonstration of his art, and the crowd that had gathered was full of admiration for his skill.
There was loud applause when he threw an apple into the air and shot three arrows into it before it hit the ground. Only one man, a sour-faced fellow who seemed to be a hawker of some sort, seemed unimpressed.
“It’s all a matter of practice,” he sneered. “Can you shoot better?” asked the archer. “I can’t shoot, but I can do something else,” said the man, keeping down a bag he had with him.
He took out an empty bottle, and a jar of oil from it. Keeping the bottle upright on the ground, he covered its mouth with a coin that had a round hole at its centre.
“I’m an oil-seller,” he explained. “Now watch.” Expertly, he poured oil from the jar into the bottle, through the hole in the coin.
“Observe,” he said, to the archer. “Not a drop fell on the coin. Not all oil-sellers can do this, but I don’t go around demanding praise for this skill. I know it is only a matter of practice. Just as your skill too is just a matter of practice.” “How can you compare your silly skill to this great archer’s?”
shouted the spectators. “Begone, fool!”
The oil-seller hastily gathered up his things, and left.
Moral: Don’t belittle another’s talents, give praise where it is due.