Sincere Repentance – Spiritual Story by Paulo Coelho

The monk Chu Lai was beaten by a teacher who did not believe anything he said. However, the professor's wife was a follower of Chu Lai, and demanded that her husband had to apologize to him.

Displeased, but without the courage to deny his wife, the man went to the temple with her and murmured some words of repentance.

“I do not forgive,” replied Chu Lai, “go back to work.”

The woman was horrified. “My husband is humiliated, and you were not generous!”

And Chu Lai responded, “Within my soul there is no rancor. But if he is not truly sorry, it is better for him to recognize now that he is mad at me. If I had accepted his forgiveness, we would be creating a false state of harmony, and this would further increase the anger of your husband.”

Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian author who has sold more than 100 million books, which include 14 short story collections and the novel “The Alchemist.” He has been a fan of the Internet since the early 1990s. He spends at least three hours a day online, writing e-mails back and forth with his readers and posting photos on Flickr, MySpace and a blog.

Coelho's online activities also include promoting pirated copies of his own books. Since 2005 he's been directing his readers to an online site where they can download his books, in languages from German to Japanese, for free. “I always thought that when, at the beginning of your career, you strive to be read, you can't change your mind later and become greedy about it.”