If this question has ever crossed your mind, then I strongly advise you to read this parable, in it you will find the answer, and most importantly, you will understand how to live with the injustice of the world.

One day, a young stranger knocked on the old sage’s door and, bursting into tears, told the old man her story.

“I don’t know how I can continue to live…” she said with trepidation in her voice. - All my life I treated people the way I would like them to treat me, I was sincere with them and opened my soul to them... Whenever possible, I tried to do good to everyone, without expecting anything in return, I helped as much as I could.

I really did all this for free, but in return I received evil and ridicule. I’m hurt to the point of pain and I’m simply tired... I beg you, tell me, what should I do?

The sage listened patiently and then gave the girl advice: “Strip naked and walk completely naked through the streets of the city,” the old man said calmly.

Sorry, but I haven’t gotten to that point yet... You’re probably crazy or joking! If I did this, I wouldn’t know what to expect from passers-by... Look, someone else will dishonor or abuse me...

The sage suddenly stood up, opened the door and put a mirror on the table. “You are ashamed to go out into the street naked, but for some reason you are not at all ashamed to walk through the world with your naked soul, wide open like this door.” You let everyone in there if you feel like it. Your soul is a mirror, which is why we all see ourselves reflected in other people.

Their soul is full of evil and vices - this is exactly the ugly picture they see when they look into your pure soul. They lack the strength and courage to admit that you are better than them and change. Unfortunately, this is the lot of only the truly brave...

What should I do? How can I change this situation if, in fact, nothing depends on me? - asked the beauty.

Come on, come with me, I’ll show you something... Look, this is my garden. For many years now I have been watering these flowers of unprecedented beauty and taking care of them. To be honest, I have never seen the buds of these flowers bloom. All I had to see were beautiful blooming flowers that beckon with their beauty and fragrant aroma.

Child, learn from nature. Look at these wonderful flowers and do as they do - open your heart to people carefully so that no one even notices. Open your soul to good people.

Get away from those who tear off your petals, throw them under your feet and trample on them. These weeds have not yet grown up to you, so you cannot help them in any way. They will only see an ugly reflection of themselves in you.

There is a saying: “If you don’t do good to people, you won’t get evil.” How do you understand it? and got the best answer

Answer from Alena Kalinina[newbie]
stupid saying

Answer from Special opinion[guru]
I understand so,
that it justifies the lazy.

Answer from Kosh[guru]
When doing good, you do not need to count on adequate compensation. Otherwise, this is already a mercantile calculation :)

Answer from Young Girl[guru]
People are always dissatisfied with something. You try, you do, but they turn their noses up: everything is wrong, we don’t want this, we wanted that.... Maybe this can be interpreted somehow. . .And also - “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”....not entirely clear..)))

Answer from Liliya Mironova[guru]
That's how I understand it. If you feel sorry for a person, he will sit on his neck, if you help him financially (without giving back), he will regularly beg for more and more help... But to help with deeds is completely stupid, because they will stupidly crap, it’s not like that, you know, it was necessary... .

Answer from Just Slavik[guru]
"If you've done something good, throw it into the water"

Answer from Garry Tov[guru]
For every good deed you can get a board on the head. I know from my own experience.

Answer from Anna[guru]
A completely stupid saying that I don’t understand and don’t want to understand, I don’t follow it and don’t recommend it to others))

Answer from Yun Han[guru]
He who does good is perceived as a weakling. And if it’s weak, then you can crush it. Society has not improved much since the days of mammoth hunting.

Answer from *&*Natali *&*[guru]
I try not to stick to it, because it will take a very long time to remove the backbreakers from my neck...
freeloaders are like leeches...

Answer from Imsky[guru]
written on the water with a pitchfork

Answer from XIgreekZ[guru]
Only unhappy or completely evil people can be guided through life by this proverb.
Many themselves have not yet understood that there is no need to expect some kind of reward in response to good deeds. And you can’t assume that everyone should now thank you forever.
Hearing these words for the first time, many are amazed at “how true this is,” most often these are young people. Especially if they come across ingratitude, or even something bad on the part of the person they have benefited from.
But if these young people are smart enough (like, of course, most people), then with age they begin to understand that living by this not very good proverb will only make things worse for themselves.

Answer from Gennady Chicherov[guru]
No good deed goes unpunished!

Answer from Maria Olshevskaya[active]
“a person who has done good to someone is unconsciously tuned to the other person’s return”
That is why there is no need to do “good”. You just need to fulfill the person’s request. When you act according to your conscience, then there is nothing to regret - you refused, you refused, you helped, you helped.
"When left hand gives alms, the right should not know about it.”

Answer from Lyudmila Gracheva[newbie]
True goodness does not need gratitude. You did a good deed and forget it, it will still be returned to you, if not to the person you did it to, then definitely to someone else. Good, like evil, is a boomerang.

Two cherries. Parable of St. Nicholas of Serbia

One man had two cherry trees in front of his house. One was evil and the other was good. Whenever he left the house, they called him and asked him for something. The evil cherry asked for different things every time: either “dig me in,” then “whiten me,” then “give me something to drink,” then “take away excess moisture from me,” then “shade me from the hot sun,” then “give me more light.” . And the good cherry tree always repeated the same request: “My lord, help me bring a good harvest!”
The owner was equally merciful to both, looked after them, listened carefully to their requests and fulfilled all their desires. He did what both one and the other asked, in other words, he gave the evil cherry everything that it demanded, and the good one only what he considered necessary, with the ultimate goal being a wonderful, abundant harvest.
And then what happened? The evil cherry tree had grown greatly, the trunk and branches glistened as if smeared with oil, and the abundant foliage was dark green, spreading, like a thick tent. In contrast to her, kind cherry with his appearance didn't attract anyone's attention.
When the harvest time came, the evil cherry produced small, rare fruits, which, due to the dense foliage, could not ripen, but the good one brought many, many very tasty berries. The evil cherry tree felt ashamed that it could not produce such a harvest as its neighbor, and it began to grumble at the owner, reproaching him for this. The owner got angry and replied: “Is it my fault?” Wasn’t it me who fulfilled all your desires for a whole year? If you thought only about the harvest, I would help you bring the same abundant fruits as hers. But you pretended to be smarter than me, who imprisoned you, and that’s why you remained barren.
The evil cherry tree bitterly repented and promised the owner that next year she would think only about the harvest, and would ask him only for this, and would leave everything else to him to take care of. As she promised, she did so - she began to behave like a kind cherry. And the next year, both cherries brought an equally good harvest, and their joy, like that of the owner, was great.
***
The moral of this simple parable is clear to all who pray to God.
The owner of the garden is the God of this light, and people are His seedlings. Like any owner, God requires a harvest from His plants. “Every tree that does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire!” - says the Gospel. Therefore, first of all and most of all, you need to take care of the harvest. And we must pray to the Owner - God, the “Lord of the Harvest”, for a good harvest. There is no need to ask the Lord for small things. Look, no one goes to the king of the earth to ask him for some little thing that can easily be obtained elsewhere.
“Our Lord is the Lord the Giver,” says Saint John Chrysostom. He loves when His children ask Him for something great, worthy of a prince. And the greatest gift that God can give to people is the Kingdom of Heaven, where He Himself reigns. Therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ commands: “Seek first the Kingdom of God, and the rest will be added to you.” And He also commands: “Do not worry about what you will eat, or what you will drink, or what you will wear. Your Heavenly Father knows that you need all this.” And He also says: “Even before you pray, your Father knows what you need!”
So what should you ask God for? First of all, what is the best, the greatest and the most infinite. And these will be those spiritual riches that are called by one name - the Kingdom of Heaven. When first of all we ask God for this, He gives, along with this wealth, everything else that we need in this world. Of course, it is not forbidden to ask God for the rest of what we need, but this can only be asked at the same time as the main thing.
The Lord Himself teaches us to pray for bread every day: “Give us this day our daily bread!” But this prayer in “Our Father” is not in first place, but only after the prayer for the holy name of God, for the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven and for the dominion of the will of God on earth as it is in Heaven.
So, first spiritual benefits, and only then material ones. All material goods are from dust, and the Lord easily creates them and easily gives them. He gives them according to His mercy even to those who do not ask for it. He gives them to animals as well as people. However, He never gives spiritual benefits either without human will or without seeking. The most precious riches, that is, spiritual ones, such as peace, joy, kindness, mercy, patience, faith, hope, love, wisdom and others, God can give as easily as he gives material goods, but only to those who love these spiritual treasures and who will ask God for them.

How often do we hear a rather convenient saying: “If you don’t do good, you won’t receive evil.” And many people really believe in this. Moreover, it is becoming a lifestyle of millions every day. But what lies behind it and how does it work?

The Parable of the Snake, the Peasant and the Heron

They began to hunt one snake. When danger was already very close, she begged a peasant walking by to save him by taking him into her stomach. He did just that. The hunters did not find them and disappeared into the thickets, and the man asked the snake to crawl out. But it was so warm and cozy inside that the snake refused to fulfill the request. Then the saddened man turned to the heron and told him about his problem. She took the snake out of the peasant's belly and killed it. But the man was very alarmed, because the snake could poison him with its poison. And then the heron said that six white birds, which needed to be boiled and eaten, could save him. It was then that the peasant thought that the heron might well become the first. He caught her and brought her home.

His wife began to scold him that the bird saved him, and he decided to repay her in this way. After that, she freed the heron, but it pecked out her eyes.

Chain reaction

The problem with the parable “don’t do good, you won’t get evil” is that at the subconscious level, every person expects that he should be repaid with good for absolutely any action. But having received something in return, he does not notice it. The Bible interprets the saying “do not do good, you will not receive evil” as the machinations of demons who try to lead us astray from the true path. In fact, any correct and sincere act enrages the evil spirits, which is why they try to cause trouble so that a person will stray from the righteous path. Remember about atonement for sins? Many people forget a simple truth - in order for sins to remain in the past, one must bring goodness into the world free of charge. Remember the wonderful saying: “Do unto people as you would have them do unto you.” Imagine for a moment that one day you will find yourself in a pretty difficult situation, which you cannot cope with yourself. And people who could provide such help live by the rule “do not do good - you will not receive evil.”

Not in word, but in deed

If we return to the opinion of the Bible, then the saying “do not do good - you will not receive evil” is quite controversial. On the one hand, it is in Christian teaching that we can see a huge number of examples that indirectly confirm this statement.

But, on the other hand, it was infallible people, the righteous and saints who saved great amount of people. For example, the parable about St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. According to legend, a formerly rich but now poor father decided to make prostitutes out of his daughters, who would thus earn their living. But Nicholas of Myra-Lycia gave him gold three times, but did it secretly, since he did not want honors and glory for himself, but only sincerely wanted to help people and turn them away from the path of depravity and sin. The father successfully married off his daughters, giving them gold as a dowry. Having learned who had benefited him, he could not repay Nicholas with anything except to thank him and God for sending his daughters such a savior and patron.

To be or not to be?

This is how we come to the main question: how true is the saying “don’t do it, you won’t get hurt.” In order to get the answer to this question, let's remember the old cartoon "Wow! Talking Fish!" It says clearly and clearly: “Do good, and then throw it into the water.” The old man did just that. And goodness returned to him a hundredfold, although he did not expect it. Therefore, you must decide for yourself who you want to be and what your children and grandchildren will become one day.