The Pencil Lead Story

Back when I used to take piano lessons in the mall near my house, we had music theory classes which would be held in a small class of around 10 students. In this class there was a little girl around 10 years old probably. She was really quiet, almost strange, but didn’t strike me as timid or shy.

So one day during lesson, my pencil ran out of lead. I took my small half-full pencil lead container and was going to take one pencil lead out. My hand slipped and all the pencil lead fell on the floor.

Before I had time to get down and pick them up, this girl was already off of her seat and getting down on the floor. I thought “oh that’s nice, she’s helping me clean up the mess I made.” So I was going to say thank you.

I was just going to open my mouth and thank her before she took 2 pencil leads from the floor and quickly went back to her seat.

Her movements were so efficient, she didn’t even bat an eyelash my way. I on the other hand, looked at her. With a little disbelief and somewhat confused at what just happened. 2 seconds later, I came to the conclusion that she didn’t intend to help, she just wanted some extra pencil lead.

I then picked up the remaining mess myself as I thought to myself “she didn’t do anything to me, but why do I feel so stupid?”