Good is only good when the person receiving it perceives it as good

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The Fine Line of Goodness

There was once a man who sat on the floor of a crowded railway station, barefoot and hungry. He stretched out his hand and asked a passing passenger for food. The passenger, moved by compassion, bought him a hot meal. The man ate, satisfied. But the moment his hunger vanished, his hand stretched again—not for food, but for money. When the passenger declined, the gratitude turned into insult. Abuses flew. The act of goodness suddenly felt... bitter.

Was the goodness wasted?

This is where the world becomes complex.

We often think good is good, simply because we mean well. But goodness isn’t always how it feels to give—it’s how it’s received. Good is only good when the person receiving it perceives it as good. That’s a brutal truth wrapped in the soft cloth of intention.

You may pour out your heart, your time, your energy into helping someone. But if they don’t value it—if they don’t recognize the worth—it starts to feel like your kindness has vanished into a black hole.

And many times, we don’t just want to do good—we want to be seen doing good. We wait for the smile, the “thank you,” the acknowledgment. We expect the return of gratitude, a trace of appreciation. But that’s where it breaks.

Because people—most of us—have a baseline of gratitude. It's not high. When someone receives help, they feel a surge of joy. But give it a few moments, and they return to their default—where your act of goodness is just another passing cloud. It’s forgotten. Sometimes even taken for granted.

So where’s the line?
Where’s the boundary that separates pure goodness from disappointment?

The line is this:
Find happiness in giving—not in what comes back.

If you deliver goodness for the sheer joy of it—because it reflects who you are, not because you expect something in return—then no abuse, no ingratitude, no silence can take that joy away.

Let your goodness be a fire that warms others, even if they don’t thank the flame.

That is where the true strength of the human spirit lies—not in how we are treated after we give, but in why we choose to give in the first place.