Two traveling angels (天使) stopped to spend the night in the home of a rich family. The family were rude and refused to let the angels live in the comfortable room. Instead, the angels were given a small and cold room. As they were making the bed in the dark room, the older angel saw a hole in the wall and repaired it. When the younger angel asked why, the older angel replied, “Things aren’t always what they seem like.”

They left the next morning and they came to a house of a very poor family at night. The farmer and his wife were very kind. After sharing a little food they had, the couple let the angels sleep in their bed where they could have a good night’s rest. When the sun came up the next morning, the angels found the farmer and his wife were crying. This was because their only cow that the poor family lived on was dead in the field.

The younger angel was angry and asked the older angel, “The rich family had everything, yet you helped him to mend his wall,” he continued, “the poor family had little but were friendly to share everything, and you let the cow die.” “Things aren’t always what they seem like.” the older angel replied, “When we stayed in the rich man’s room, I noticed there was lots of gold in that hole of the wall. But the owner didn’t know the secret. Since the owner was not kind and didn’t share his things with others, I mended the wall so that he wouldn’t get the gold for ever. Last night, when we were resting in the poor farmer’s house, the God who controls death came for his wife. I used the cow’s life to exchange the kind woman’s . Now you see, things aren’t always what they seem like.”

Long ago in a small village, there was a place known as the House of 1,000 Mirrors.

A small, happy little dog learned about this place and decided to visit. When he arrived, he jumped happily up the stairs and to the doorway (门口) of the house. He looked through the doorway. His ears lifted up, and his tail wagged (摇摆) as fast as it could. To his great surprise, he found himself looking at 1,000 other happy little dogs with their tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled a great smile and was answered with 1,000 great smiles that were just as warm and friendly. As he left the house, he thought to himself: “This is a wonderful place. I will come back to visit often.”

In this same village, another little dog, who was not quite as happy as the other one, decided to visit the house. He slowly climbed the stairs and hung (垂下) his head low as he looked into the doorway. When he saw the 1,000 unfriendly-looking dogs looking back at him, he shouted at them. He was afraid when he saw 1,000 little dogs shouting back. As he left, he thought to himself: “That is a terrible place. I will never go back there again.”

All the faces in the world are mirrors of you. What kind of reflections (反映) do you see in the faces of people you meet?