Around noon on a summer’s day, some travelers who were exhausted by the heat caught sight of a plane tree. They went and lay down in the shade of the tree in order to rest. Looking up at the tree, they remarked to one another that the plane tree produced no fruit and was therefore useless to mankind.

“The travelers and the plane tree.” Illustration by Arthur Rackham. Published in Aesop’s Fables by V.S. Chesterton (1912), Doubleday Page & Co.

The plane tree interrupted them and said, ‘What ungrateful people you are! You denounce my uselessness and lack of fruit at the very moment in which you are enjoying my kindness!’

Likewise, even when a person treats his neighbours well, his goodness can unfortunately be called into question.