Tea For Clothes

I don’t remember the name of a poet whose story goes like this with a very good moral. There was a poet who was invited for a poet’s conference. He did not have good clothes and thus he went to the conference in his old clothes. The guard at the gate did not allow him to enter the hall and after some hard time he was able to join the gathering. When he went inside no waiters would come near him just because his clothing was not good enough. No one would talk to him inspite of his brilliance is writing poems.

The following day he borrowed a pair of nice suit and went to the conference. The guard gave him a salute, opened the door and let him in. After being seated he was given a cup of tea by a waiter and was treated as a very well honored man. When he was given a cup of tea he did something which left everyone embarrassed. He dipped his sleeve into the cup and did not drink the tea. Others who were near him asked why did he do that, the answer was “He did not give the tea to me but he gave it to my clothes” because when he came to the conference the day before he was ignored by everyone just because he was dressed in rags.