Chapter 117அதிகாரம் 117 நம்புதல் Trust

In the hand of one who does not trust, even a rope becomes a snake; in the hand of one who has trusted, even a snake is a rope.

The mind that keeps asking, ‘Has it split?’ is itself the axe-handle that splits it.

An axe-handle is wood, kin to the tree it fells. Suspicion helps cause the very break it watches for.

Whoever weighs wet paddy trusting its seller’s word finds the gain on the scale is only water.

Paddy is unhusked rice. Moisture adds weight but no grain.

Poison fallen into milk does not become milk; all the milk becomes poison. So it is with trust.

No one walks with both eyes shut. Trust is walking with one eye shut.

Though those who went back on their word seek the old help, the door has turned to stone.

Even in a new house, the man whose house burned has nights where sleep is, and is not.

The very shoulder that pushed it away, a child holds to as the place that bears it up.

If a man brings his doubt into the open, he loses someone; if he keeps it inside, the doubt itself rules him.

No one laughs at a man who trusted and lost; a man who lost because he would not trust is himself the joke.