A high school Life Orientation teacher wanted to give her class a special kind of task. The teacher told each learner to bring along a plastic bag consisting of a few potatoes. Each potato will be given a name of a person that the learner hates. So, the number of potatoes that a learner puts in his/her plastic bag will lean on the number of people he/she hates.

When the day came, every learner brought potatoes with the names of the people they hated. Others had two potatoes while others on the other hand had five or more potatoes. The teacher then instructed her learners to carry the potatoes in the plastic bags with them wherever they go for one week. When each day passed, the learners begun grumbling about the repulsive smell produced by the rotting potatoes. After the week passed, the learners were alleviated because the task they were assigned to do was completed.

The teacher asked, “How did you feel carrying the potatoes with you for one week?” the learners let out their frustrations and started going on and on about the struggle they had to go through, carrying the smelly potatoes wherever they went.

Then the teacher told them the concealed meaning behind the task. The teacher said,” This is exactly what happens when you bear hatred for someone inside your heart. The stench of hatred will taint your heart and you will carry it with you wherever you go. If you cannot bear the smell of the rotten potatoes for just one week, imagine what it is like to have the stench of hatred in your heart for a lifetime?”

Moral: Throw away any hatred for anyone in your heart so that you will not carry the heavy burden for a lifetime. Forgiveness is the best attitude anyone can take. Nothing good can ever come out of hating others.