A Story from a hot land for a hot summer night

Once upon a time an old man was sitting in the dust at the entrance to a city in the desert.
A young man approached him and said,
'I'm new here. What are the people like that live in this city?'
The old man looked at him and answered,
'Tell me, what were the people like in the place you have come from?'

The young man replied with an angry voice,
' They were all selfish and bad, that's why I was happy to leave.'

The old man sighed,
'You'll find that the people here are just the same.'

A little while after another young man approached the old man and asked the same question,
'I've just arrived here, please tell me what the people of this city are like.'

The old man answered in the same way,
'Tell me young man, what were the people like in the city you have come from?'

The young man smiled,
' They were wonderful, honest, welcoming and kind. I had so many friends there and it was very hard to leave them.'

The old man smiled back,
You'll find that the people who live here are just like the ones you have left.'

As soon as the second young man had left, a merchant who had been listening to the conversation came up to the old man and gave him a stern look,
'How can you give such different answers to the same question asked by two different people?'

The old man replied,
My son, everyone carries their own universe in their heart. It doesn't matter where they come from.
Anyone who has never found anything good in his past will find nothing here either...
Anyone who had friends in his other city, here they will find loyal and faithful friends....because people will be to us that which we find in them.'

The whole world smiles in the same language

Matisse, 1910, The dance,