Two Scenarios

I.             Somehow (either through no fault of your own or through your own stupidity) you find yourself hanging precariously on a cliff hundreds of feet above rocky ground. All that separates you from a gory death are your two hands holding on desperately to the top edge of the cliff. The side of the cliff is smooth and slick and there’s no place for your feet to be fixed firmly and so they are dangling above the abyss. You’re just not strong enough to pull yourself up to safety. The inevitable outcome, as what strength you do have wanes and your hands eventually lose their hold on the top edge of the cliff, is your eventual death. There seems no hope until a stranger comes along and offers you his hand which you gladly take. He pulls you up and you are saved. He is your savior. All you had to do was freely give him your hand.

II.            A man buys a large company and discovers a case of embezzlement. He figures out who is the perpetrator of the crime and confronts him. The man confesses and asks forgiveness. Before I can forgive you, the man says, the money must be returned to the company. The man says he has lost all the money gambling and it’s impossible for him to pay it back. The new owner then decides to reimburse the company using his own funds. The debt, then, is paid in full. He then forgives the man but hopes of a good relationship between them is not promising. The owner wonders if he can ever trust the man. The man decides that the only way for that to happen is to be the most loyal and trustworthy employee he can possibly be; and he is for the next twenty years until the owner dies. In the end they have become friends.