Reward Gone Means No More Insults

If we come to view ourselves as working for an external reward, we will no longer find the activity worth doing in its own right.

There is an old joke that illustrates this.  An elderly man, harassed by the taunts of the neighborhood children, devised a scheme.  He offered to pay them a dollar each if they would return on Tuesday and yell their insults again.  The children did so eagerly and received the money.

Then he told them he would pay only twenty-five cents on Wednesday.

When they returned, insulted him again, and collected their quarters, he informed them that Thursday's rate would be just a penny.

"Forget it," they said -- and never taunted him again.

- Alfie Kohn, Boston Globe, submitted by Dr. William T. McConnell to The Pastor's Story File (October 1995)