Here is a story I heard the other day on a Dharma talk podcast that I'd like to share. If the story starts to sound familiar, it turns out it is a variation of a story by Douglas Adams, author of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Snopes also weighs in on the origin of the story so apparently it has been around. It was new to me.
The woman telling the story had read it in her organization's newsletter. It is her version that I tell today.
Please come over the jump for a cookie blessing:
One day a woman decided to treat herself and take herself out to the coffee shop to enjoy some coffee, read the paper, and eat some cookies she had bought.
She arrived at the coffee shop, sat at the counter, ordered her coffee and started browsing the paper.
Suddenly, the man sitting next to her opened the package of cookies and ate one! She didn't know what to think! She took a cookie and ate it. He took another cookie! She wasn't liking this too much, but didn't know what to say. She wondered about this man and who did he think he was!
She never did confront him, feeling discombobulated, and not knowing what to do. She just looked down at her paper and drank her coffee. This went on for a bit. She would take another cookie and eat it and then he would take another cookie and eat it! Back and forth, he eats a cookie, she eats a cookie, as she stewed a little and tried to concentrate on the paper and enjoy her morning out.
Finally, there was only one cookie left. The stranger picked it up, broke it in half, popped half in his mouth and pushed the other half over to her.
So, the woman ate the last half cookie, and paid her check and left.
She got in her car, moved some items on the passenger seat to make room for her purse, and there was her package of cookies!!
Things are not always as they seem. Enjoy the moment.