Narendranath Dutta (Swami Vivekananda) was a master story-teller whose words were as magnetic as his personality. When he spoke everyone listened in rapt attention forgetting their work.
One day while in school, Narendra was talking animatedly to his friends during a class recess. Meanwhile, the teacher had entered the classroom and had begun to teach his subject. But the students were too absorbed in Narendra’s story to pay any attention to the lesson.
After some time had passed, the teacher heard the wishpering and understood what was going on! Visibly annoyed, he now asked each student what he had been lecturing on. None could answer.
But Narendra was remarkably talented; his mind could work simultaneously on two planes. While he had engaged one part of his mind in talking, he had kept the other half on the lesson. So when the teacher asked him that question, he answered correctly. Quite nonplussed, the teacher inquired who had been talking so long. Everybody pointed at Narendranath, but the teacher refused to believe them.
He then asked all the students except Narendra to stand up on the bench. Narendra also joined his friends and stood up. The teacher asked him to sit down. But Narendra replied: ‘No sir, I must also stand up because it was I who was talking to them.’
Honesty and Truth are the best policy...