HAPPINESS
Lesson plan
Step 3
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Read the story and answer the questions.
The Old Man and the Sack
When Aydin was walking along the road into town he met an old man who was frowning and looking miserable.“ What’ s wrong?” he asked. The old man held up an old sack and moaned,“ All that I own in this wide world hardly fills this old sack.”“ Too bad,” said Aydin, and with that, he snatched the bag from the man’ s hands and ran down the road with it. When the old man realised that he had lost everything, he burst into tears and continued walking into town, even more miserable than before. Meanwhile, Aydin quickly ran around the bend in the road and placed the sack in the middle of the road where he knew the old man would find it. When he saw his bag in front of him in the road, he laughed with joy, and shouted,“ Oh, my lovely sack! I thought I’ d lost you!” Watching through the bushes, Aydin laughed.“ Well, that’ s one way to make someone happy again!”
Adapted from a Sufi Story from the Middle East
1. What do you think the old man had in the sack? 2. Why did Aydin take the old man’ s sack? 3. What is the moral of the story? 4. Did you make anyone happy today? If so, how?
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