A person used to work as a sales manager in a multinational company. He built a luxurious house outside the city with his savings. Being out of town, that area was somewhat deserted.
The man moved to his new home with his wife and children. He would leave for work early in the morning and return by late evening.
Seeing such a luxurious house in a secluded place, a group of thieves planned to steal from there. Before the theft, those thieves started going around the house to take account of the activities of his house.
On the very first day, they noticed a strange behaviour of the manager. After coming home, he first went to the mango tree in his garden, and started taking something out from his office bag, one by one, and putting it somewhere near the tree.
With the manager's back to the thieves, the thieves could not see what he took out of his bag and where he hid it near the tree, and guessed that it must be something of value.
The thieves decided to ambush the manager's house and waited for it to get dark. When the lights of the house went out at night, they were relieved that everyone in the house was asleep.
They entered the house by climbing the wall and went straight to the mango tree. Then, without wasting time they started searching for the manager's hidden things there. But even after searching for long, they could not find anything. Eventually, they were exhausted and returned empty hand.
The next day, they again sat hiding near that house. When the manager came back from the office, the thieves kept their eyes fixed on him. Like the previous day, he first went to the mango tree and took something out of the bag and started putting it near the tree. Then he went inside the house.
After the lights of the house were turned off that night, the thieves again jumped over the wall and reached the mango tree, and started searching for the things which the manager had hidden there. But they could not find anything that day as well.
For some days, they kept searching near the mango tree every night. But they could not find anything. They got upset and wondered how did the manager hide those things around the tree that even clever thieves like themselves were unable to find them. Now the thieves had more curiosity about finding out this secret, than the desire to steal.
Finally, to satisfy their curiosity, they all reached the manager's house to meet him on Sunday. They greeted the manager like gentlemen.
Then the chief of thieves said, "Sir, please don't feel bad. I wanted to ask you something. We are thieves. For the past few days, we have been planning to steal from your house. Everyday, we see you come home in the evening and hide something near the mango tree. But even after lakhs of efforts, we could not find those things. We are all anxious to know how you hide things there, that they can't be found?"
The manager laughed after listening to the thieves, and said, "Brother, I don't hide anything there. You guys have misunderstood."
"No sir, we have seen it. Every evening, you take something out of your bag and put it in the tree. You hide something there," all the thieves said together.
Now the manager got serious and said, “I am a sales manager in a multinational company. The work pressure is very high, due to which there is bound to be tension. In any case, the target has to be met. For this, there are daily quarrels with someone or the other. You have to listen to the taunts of the customer, endure the boss' scolding. The mental stress is so much that even when I come home, it does not go. Earlier, my stress was often unnecessarily endured by my family members."
The manager sighed and stopped for a while. Then he started speaking further, "when I got this new house built, I thought that I would keep the atmosphere of this house peaceful. I will never bring the stress from office to home. So after coming home, I first go near the mango tree and put all my stress there one by one. The wonderful thing is that by the time I go to pick it up the next day, half of the tension has already disappeared. Whatever little is left, I take with me. But then when I come home in the evening, I again leave the tension near the tree. That is the secret of the tree."
After listening to the manager, the thieves understood the secret of the tree. They could not succeed in stealing, but they did get a great lesson in life.
