Chapter 99அதிகாரம் 99 கொடை Generosity

What is received standing upright is a gift; what is received bowed down is cruelty.

Plenty, they say, is what remains when it has been let go; the breast remains when it has given its milk.

Giving the milk does not use up the breast that gives it.

Whoever has tried giving a little will give much; whoever says, ‘If wealth comes, I will give,’ does not give.

In the hands of those who hide it, wealth is dried grain; in the hands of those who sow, it is seed.

Seed is grain scattered on the ground; it is the same wealth in hand, held back or let go.

Do not think the one who gave is spent. Ghee is spent, and its spending gives the flame.

To grip the sword by its point and hold out the hilt: that is the giving that knows the heart.

A sandal measured to the foot gives a stride; even gold that does not know the foot is a burden.

The woman who gives the last grain in her pot has a compassion that those who give granaries rarely reach.

The joy that gives is water flowing out to both banks; the joy that does not give is water gathered at its spring.

The one who gave what was hard to give is the great one; and what is easy to give, who would not give?