A little boy was playing in a meadow near some woods. In his excitement he shouted: "Hello! Hello!" From the nearby woods, he heard a shout in answer: "Hello! Hello!"

The boy was very surprised, and called out: "Who are you?" Immediately the response came back: "Who are you?" Angry at having his own words repeated, he shouted more loudly: "You are a stupid fellow!" and "stupid fellow " came back to him from the woods.

He was now so angry at the boy in the woods that he began to call him worse names. Each insult was repeated to him. At last he went into the woods to look for the boy, and get revenge on him for mocking him. But try as he might, he found no one.

Then he ran home and complained to his mother that there was a bad boy hidden in the woods who had been calling him names. His mother listened to his story. She could tell right away that there wasn’t another boy at all. The whole time, it had been his own voice echoing from the woods. When her son finished his story, she said to him:

"What you heard was only the echo of your own words. If you had spoken kindly, kind words would have come back to you out of the woods. Listen, my boy, it is the same in one's daily life. The treatment we get from others depends a lot on the way we behave to them. If we are courteous and kind to those we come into contact with, they will be courteous and kind to us. If we are unkind to them, we cannot expect anything but unkindness on their part."