Sixpences from the Holy Man

When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá first arrived in England, He was the guest of a friend in a village not far from London. The evident poverty around Him in this wealthy country distressed Him greatly. He would walk out in the town, garbed in His white turban and long Persian coat, and all eyes were centred upon this strange visitor, who, the people had been told, was “a holy man from the East”. Naturally the children were attracted to Him, followed Him, pulled at His coat, or His hand, and were immediately taken into His arms and caressed. This delighted them, of course, and children are never afraid of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, but what pleased and amazed them still more was that when they were put down, they found in their little hands a shilling or sixpence from the capacious pockets of “the holy Man’s” long coat. Such bits of silver were a rarity in their experience, and they ran home with joy to tell the tale of the generous stranger from the Orient, possessed apparently of an endless store of shining sixpences.

The children crowded after Him and so many sixpences were dispensed that the friend who entertained ‘Abdu’l-Bahá became alarmed, and talked the matter over with Miss Robarts, who was also a guest in the house. “It is a shame!” they said indignantly. “He comes to us accepting nothing, and is giving to our people all the time! It must not go on!”

That day ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had bestowed many sixpences, and people had come from the neighbouring villages, bringing their children to receive the blessing from “the holy Man” — and of course the sixpences! About nine o’clock in the evening the ladies decided that no one else must see ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that night. But as they waited outside the cottage, a man came up the path, carrying one baby, and with others clinging to him. When he asked for “the holy Man”, however, he was told severely that He could not be seen, He was very tired and had gone to bed. The man sighed, as he said, “Oh, I have walked six miles from far away to see Him. I am so sorry!”

The hostess responded severely, feeling that the desire for sixpences had prompted the journey perhaps more than religious enthusiasm, and the man sighed more deeply than ever, and was turning away, when suddenly ‘Abdu’l-Bahá came around the corner of the house. The way in which He embraced the man and all the babies was so wonderful, that the hearts of the too careful friends melted within them, and when He at last sent away the unbidden guests, comforted, their hearts full of joy, their hands bursting with sixpences, the two friends looked at one another and said: “How wrong we were! We will never again try to manage ‘Abdu’l-Bahá!”

Source: Vignettes from the Life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (Annamarie Honnold), pp. 73–74.

Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: hospitality).

Various. *bahaistories.com archive*. https://bahaistories.com/subject/hospitality