7 / THE LOST COIN /
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One evening Nitti Mudaliar was found searching earnestly for something in the courtyard before his house. When his wife asked him about it he replied that he had dropped a coin. His wife joined in the search. Soon others gathered and practically the whole neighbourhood was searching for the lost coin, to no avail.
Suddenly one young man asked Nitti, "Which is the precise point where you dropped the coin? Even half an hour's search has yielded no results!!"
"Oh," said Nitti, "I lost the coin inside the house".
"Then why are we searching here?", cried an amazed neighbour.
"The problem is", said Nitti, "I have no lights inside my house. Out here at least there's the streetlamp. We can search by its light."
[ Before you laugh at Nitti, remember we are all experts at searching for answers in the wrong places! We seek to find ourselves everywhere - in money, power, relationships, ideologies - but fail to move in the one obvious direction - inwards. The first step towards awareness is realizing that the coin you have lost is inside your own house. Then you'll automatically stop searching for it in the streets! ]