One day a young man was standing in the middle of a town and told the crowd that he had the most beautiful heart all over the valley. A lot of people gathered around him and looked at his beautiful heart, because it was perfect. There was no mark or fault in it. Yes, they agreed with him. It was really the most beautiful heart, they had ever seen.

Suddenly an old man was coming out of the crowd. He said:" Well, your heart is not that beautiful as mine." The crowd and the young man turned around and looked at the old man’s heart. It was beating strongly, but it was full of scars and pieces were missing. Some pieces were replaced by others, which did not fit. There were some frazzled, rough edges and deep furrows. Pieces were missing.

The people stared at him and thought: "How can he believe in having a more beautiful heart?" The young man looked at the old man’s heart, saw its bad condition and started laughing: "You must be joking. You dare to compare your heart with mine. My heart is perfect but yours is a mix of scares and tears."

"Yes", said the old man, "yours is looking perfect, but I would never exchange my heart for yours. Every single scar stands for a person whom I gave my love to. I rip a part of my heart and hand it to them, often they hand me a part of their hearts to replace it in the open wound. But they are different and not matching 100%. So it looks rough. But I love it because it reminds me of the love I shared with them. Sometimes I handed a piece of my heart without getting back a piece of their heart. These are the empty furrows. Giving love sometimes means to take a risk.

Even though the furrows are painful, they stay open and also remind me of the love I feel for these people. Hopefully one day they will return and fill the empty places in my heart. Can you see the real beauty now? How it looks like?”

The young man couldn't move and tears were running down his face.

Then he approached the old man and ripped a piece out of his perfect heart.

With his trembling hands he offered it to the old man. The old man accepted his offer and attached it to his heart. After that he also ripped a piece out of his scared heart and filled the empty place in the young man's heart. It didn't match perfect, because of the frazzled edges.

The young man looked at his heart, not perfect anymore but more beautiful than ever simply because he could feel the old man’s love flowing into his own heart. They hugged each other and left side by side.