One day, in a heavily crowded place, a young man was shouting at the crowd.  

“People look at me; I have the most beautiful heart in the world.”

Many people looked at him and were stunned to see the beautiful heart in a perfect shape, no little flaw, which looked quite amazing. Most of the people who saw his heart was mesmerized by the beauty of his heart and praised him.  

However, there came an old man and challenged the young man, “No my son, I have got the most beautiful heart in the world!”

The young man asked, “Show me your heart, then!”

The old man showed his heart to him. It was very rough, uneven, and had scars all over the heart. Also, the heart was not in shape, appeared like bits and pieces joined together in various colours. There were some rough edges, some part of the heart were removed and filled with other pieces.  

The heart of the old man simply looked like various pieces of heart joined together and formed as a heart.  

The young man started laughing at his heart, “My dear old man, are you mad? See, my heart! How beautiful and flawless it is. You cannot find even a bit of imperfection in my heart. See, yours. It is full of scars, wounds and blemishes. How can you say your heart is beautiful?”

“Dear boy, my heart is just so beautiful as your heart is. Did you see the scars? Each scar represents the love I shared with a person. I share a piece of heart with others when I share love and in return I get a piece of heart, which I fix at the place where I had torn a piece!” said the old man.

The young man was shocked.  

And the old man continued. “Since the pieces of heart I shared were neither equal nor in the same shape or size, my heart is full of uneven edges and bits and pieces.”

“My heart is not in shape because sometimes I never get the love in return from those I gave it. So where do you see the real beauty? Your heart which looks fresh and fuller with no scars which indicates you never shared love with anybody. Did you?”  

The young man stood still and never spoke a word. Tears rolled down his cheeks. He walked to the old man, tore a piece of his heart and gave the piece to the old man.

Many give importance and respect to physical beauty. Yet, physical appearance isn’t the real beauty!