Two Bento Box

Sarah and Lisa stared at the clock several times waiting for their lunch hours. They could hear their stomach rumbling for food. 

“My goodness. The 10 minutes before lunch is the longest period ever!!” Sarah sighed.

“I hope they serve something nice in the cafe today. Yesterday’s food was so bad. The chicken was tasteless,” Lisa responded as she continued typing out on the document she was working on.

“Beggars can’t be choosers Lisa. Good enough the company offers us free food on daily basis,” Lisa’s colleague James commented at her statement.

“True that. But there is actually a beggar among us,” Lisa responded and the three of them laughed away. 

The clock strike one and they rushed to the office cafeteria. Bento boxes of chicken skewers, white rice and blanched spinach was neatly arranged along a counter. They queued to get their lunch and continued chatting as they waited for their turn.

A tall, chubby lady queued with them to get her share of the food. Lisa and Sarah exchanged looks and whispered to James, “ She is the beggar we were talking about.”

“Why would you say so?” James asked out of curiosity.

“Well, you will see now,” Lisa responded with a smirk on her face.

They sat at a corner table and observed the chubby lady in the queue. As her turn approached, she smiled warmly and enquired the kitchen helper, “How are you Timah? Is there extra bentos today? May I have two as usual?”

“Hi Jane. Yes you can definitely have 2 bentos as there are few employees who is on medical leave but their share was prepared anyways”, Timah said as she passed 2 packs of food to Jane.

Jane took the food and left the cafeteria. 

“See! This is a professional level begging procedure,” Sarah said and laughed.

“I think 1 pack of food is not enough for her. I mean just look at her. So I guess she takes two,” Lisa added on as the three of them laughed.

Days passed and Jane tried her best to take 2 packs of food every day. Somedays, she can’t get 2 packs and still remained a sunshine regardless. More people started noticing this behaviour and spread the word around. People laughed and took it as a solid lunch time entertainment everyday.

One day, Lisa and Sarah planned on having hawker noodles across the street. They logged out happily and walked towards the hawker stall and enjoyed the food. As they sat and chatted, they noticed Jane walking out of the office building. As usual, they started making mean jokes and cracked up. Just as they were going about the conversation, they saw Jane walking towards 2 old ladies at the bottom of an overpass. The old ladies were handicapped and sold keychains for a living.

The old ladies’ face lighted up at the sight of Jane. Jane walked towards them and squatted by their side and took out food from her bag. It felt like a sharp slap on both of Lisa and Sarah’s face when they realised it was the bentos she took from the cafeteria.

Lisa and Sarah was extremely embarrassed to even talk to each other. They immediately stopped laughing or making mean jokes about Jane from that day on but, the damage was done and they could not stop others from spreading such hatred. The mean jokes went in cycle but Jane kept doing what she was doing. Whatever it is life goes on.

“OUR PRIME PURPOSE IN LIFE IS TO HELP OTHERS. AND IF YOU CAN’T HELP THEM, AT LEAST DON’T HURT THEM”. Dalai Lama