Finest things in life

There was a group of elderly gentlemen in Japan who would meet to exchange news and drink tea.

One of their diversions was to search for costly varieties of tea and create new blends that would delight the palate.

When it was the turn of the oldest member of the group to entertain the others, he served tea with the greatest ceremony, measuring out the leaves from a golden container.

Everyone had the highest praise for the tea and demanded to know by what particular combination he had arrived at this exquisite blend.

The old man smiled and said, “Gentlemen, the tea that you find so delightful is the one that is drunk by the peasants on my farm. The finest things in life are neither costly nor hard to find.”

Image: A postage stamp issued by Laos in 1998 depicts Phrabang (Delicate Buddha), an 83cm-high standing statue of the Buddha with palms facing forward, cast in bronze and covered in gold leaf. According to local lore, it was cast in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) sometime between the 1st and 9th centuries. Courtesy https://www.buddhiststamp.com/