06/06/2026
A beautiful parable about the power of prayer. Be sure to read it in these difficult times!
Once an unfortunate woman with an exhausted face entered the store and asked the grocer to give her some groceries so that she could cook dinner for the children.
He asked the woman how much money she had.
She replied:
‒ My husband died in the war. And I have nothing but a little prayer.
The merchant was not very sentimental and believed that his grocery store was not a place to distribute free bread to the poor.
He carelessly threw:
‒ Write it on a piece of paper, ‒ and went back to work.
To his surprise, the woman took a piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to the grocer across the counter. She said:
‒ I did this at night when I was looking after my sick child.
Before he could recover from his surprise, the grocer took the piece of paper, but immediately regretted having done so: what should he do now and what should he answer?
Then an idea suddenly occurred to him. Without even saying a prayer, he put the piece of paper on the scales and said:
‒ Let’s see what it’s worth.
To his surprise, when he put a loaf of bread on the other pan of the scales, the needle of the scales did not even move. He was even more embarrassed by the fact that the needle continued to stand still, although he quickly put the products on the scales, since the customers were watching. The grocer tried to be rude, but to no avail. He blushed, and therefore became even more angry.
Finally, he muttered:
‒ Well, that’s all the scales can withstand. Here’s a bag. You’ll have to pack it all yourself. I’m busy. Making sounds that resembled soft sobs, the woman took the balls and began to pack the food, wiping her tears with her sleeve every time her hand was free.
The grocer tried not to look, but he noticed in an instant that he had given the woman a rather large bag, with a little room left.
So, without saying anything, he placed a large head of cheese on the counter. He did not see the timid, grateful smile that flashed in her moist eyes in response to the grocer’s kindness, which refuted his first misleading impression of his stinginess.
When the woman had left, the grocer went to the scales, scratching his head and shaking it in surprise. Eventually he found the answer. The scales were broken.
Years passed. The grocer often recalled this incident and did not know whether the answer he had found was the right one. Why was the woman’s prayer already written and ready to meet his unexpected demand? Why did the poor woman come just when the scales were broken? What had so confused him that he had not even noticed the breakage and had continued to add food when there was only a scrap of paper on the scales? He felt foolish and did not understand what he was doing.
The grocer never saw the woman again. But he had never seen her before. And yet, to the end of his life, he remembered her better than any other customer.
He knew that the incident was not a figment of his imagination, because he still kept the scrap of paper on which the woman’s prayer was written:
“Please, Lord, give us our daily bread.”
Amen 🙏🏻
