Once there was a very old man. His eyes were weak, he couldn't hear well, and his knees shook when he walked. When he sat at the table, he could hardly hold a spoon. He often spilled his soup on the tablecloth.
His son and his son’s wife were annoyed by this. Finally, they made the old grandfather sit in a corner behind the stove. They gave him very little food in a cheap clay bowl. The old man used to look at their table with tears in his eyes.
One day, his hands shook so much that the clay bowl fell and broke. The young wife shouted at him, but the old man said nothing; he only sighed. After that, they bought him a very cheap wooden bowl to eat from.
A few days later, the parents saw their four-year-old son playing with some pieces of wood on the floor.
"What are you making?" the father asked.
"I am making a little wooden trough," the child answered. "It is for you and mother to eat from when I am big."
The husband and wife looked at each other for a long time. Suddenly, they began to cry. They realized how mean they had been. They immediately brought the grandfather back to the table. From that day on, he always ate with them, and they never got angry if he spilled a little soup.