Monday, April 12, 2010

You Knew What I Was When You Picked Me Up

An Indian legend goes as follows:

A boy is up on a cold mountain top and a snake sees him and asks to be taken down the mountain to where it’s warm. The snake can’t move because it’s too cold.

The boy says, “No, I know your kind, you’re a snake and you’ll bite me.” The snake says “No, I won’t bite you, I will treat you differently because you are doing me this favor” and eventually convinces the boy to take him down.

So the boy puts the snake in his coat and carries him down the mountain. They get to the bottom, it’s nice and warm, the boy puts the snake on the ground and immediately the snake coils and bites him in the leg. “But you promised…” said the boy.

“You knew what I was when you picked me up” the snake said as it slithered away.

We recently re-hired someone at my company that had worked for us 5 years ago. Everything he did was for his personal benefit and at the expense of others. This second time he promised up and down he would be different.

Within two months we had to terminate his employment again. For exactly the same reason. “You knew what I was when you picked me up” came to mind. We should have known better.

Said another way, “Ye shall know them by their fruits.”

- 3 Nephi 14:16

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