Excerpt: The Thief and the Moon
“A Zen master lived a life of simplicity in his hut near the mountains. When he was away one night, a thief broke in only to find nothing worth stealing.

Just then the Zen master returned. ‘You have traveled far to visit me,’ he told the thief. ‘I cannot let you return empty handed. Here are my clothes, please accept them as my gift.’

The baffled thief took the clothes and vanished.

Naked now, the master gazed at the moon. ‘Poor man,’ he sighed, ‘How I wish I could give him this glorious moon.’”

Discuss:

• What do you think is the point of this story?
• How does having an attitude of abundance instead of scarcity affect how we give?