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We’ve all heard the story about the scorpion and the frog, with the moral “Don’t try to help if you know the reaction will be hostile”.

In contrast, here’s a Chinese parable about a scorpion, which I found serendipitously. With the help of Google Translate, I’ll try to put it in English. [I don’t know Chinese, so I’d welcome any corrections, or notes on its source.]

A monk, seeing a scorpion fall into the water, decided to scoop it up in his hand to lift it back out onto the ground. To his surprise, as soon as he tried, the scorpion stung his fingers viciously. Without fear, the monk once again reached into the water, intending to rescue the scorpion. Once again the scorpion stung his hand. Another monk said: “A scorpion will always sting you. Why try to save it?” The first monk said: “The scorpion’s nature is to sting; my nature is to love. How could I give up my own nature merely because of a scorpion’s nature?”

That warms my heart.