It is just a meaningful story about friendship I wanna share ;)

A Friendship Story in Vietnamese Culture

This story also have another name, which is "Selling Hair to Serve Friends."

Why the Vietnamese story always begin people being poor?...

Back in the old days there were three boys, Tung, Truc, and Mai. Each of the boys was from a different region in Viet Nam and by chance they were brought together to study under the same teacher. The only thing the young men had in common was how poor each of them was.
Their families were dirt poor but the parents were determined for the son to have an education. For that very reason, all of them buried themselves in their books so their family's effort would not go to waste and somehow became friends.
When they became friends, the boys sworn together that later on in life if one of the three becomes successful, he would not forget the others and their time in poverty. He would also promise to aid the other friends out of the lower class.
After awhile, due to family's circumstances all three boys had to quit school and went their separate ways. Tung was the first fortunate one to have his luck turn around. With a bright mind and perseverance, Tung was very determined to pursue his study.
Tung became a servant for an elderly named Nghe in order to continue his study. The old man recognized Tung potential and determination and supported him like a son. For the next few years, Tung studied and he was finally able to obtain Tien Si (a person who passed all three examinations held by the government). With the Tien Si, Tung became an officer in the capital city.
From that point, Tung's life picked up its pace, its speed turned into a whirlwind no one could catch up. Even though he now lived in luxury, Tung still remembered his book friends from before. One day, Tung decided to find his friends so he took a leave of absences.
On Tung's journey to find his friends, he dressed as commoner in order to avoid disturbance and the hassle of guard soldiers around him. It did not take him a long time to find Truc's house, one of his two best friends back in the old days.

The first visit...

Let's back track a bit to Truc's story after he left his friends. The day after Truc quitted school he inherited a big amount of land from his grandparents on his mother's side. Through hard work and knowing how to turn the land around, Truc was able to make the land rich in ten years and became well off.
Even though he was rich, he does not want to lose a dollar, a quarter, or even a penny to anyone. Because of this, Truc has forgotten the words of promise between the three friends in the past."AW Heck! Why waste your time searching? The other people did not bother to find you or I."
With that thought, Truc felt very secure with all his actions and words. When Tung first saw how rich his friend was, he wanted to test how true the feelings were so he does not say anything about his current life. The only thing that Tung told Truc was that he missed his friend so he wanted to find and visit him.
Judging from Tung's appearance, Truc guessed he only have enough to eat and only come to rekindle the friendship to ask for money. The thought floated with Truc as he pretended his life was still in difficulty and went on to tell Tung.
"To tell you the truth, if it were not because of the past recent business trips than I would not be losing to anyone. Earlier I was considering finding you in the North but after so many bad droughts continuously and then there was a famine, I had to mortgage some of my acres and it was not until recent I finished paying it off."
Truc went on and on about his so-called hardships in order to zip Tung's mouth if he had any thoughts about asking money. To continue on with his charade of his life in poverty, Truc gave his friend a small, simple dinner. The next morning before everyone woke up, Truc went to the cook and asked him to make a fish net and worms for his next plan.
While Truc showed Tung around the property, they came upon the cook. Truc yelled at the cook, "Hey! 'Dan bat kha ha tri' (at 3 do not let the net down). Don't you remember the old saying?! Why do you want to fish at this hour? Do you want me to go bankrupt?"
The servant caught the owner's meaning and quietly left the scene. That afternoon when the chickens returned to its coop, Truc's wife told the house servant to pick the plumpest chicken to kill. Before the chicken could be kill, Truc ran into the kitchen screaming,
"Ey! At 4 you should not kill birds! Even if your friend should visit, you should still not kill. It is highly forbid."
Tung was done witnessing how Truc's life was and continued onto Mai's house, the second friend who lived through hardships with Tung during his school years. Still in his commoner's clothes, Tung arrived at Mai's house and just as before at Truc's, he did not mentioned anything about his life.

No money, no worry...

 

Ever since Mai quitted school and returned home, he saw his family's situation worsen. He worked hard to try to make it on the top but it seemed like it was not his time. All his business trips ended in failure and losses and when he switched to teaching, he suddenly became sick. Mai had to sell off parts of his land to pay off the medicine bills.
In the end both husband and wife had to rent some land to farm and have to work on others' to be able to live by. Even though the couple had nothing and finding a meal was hard, they not once complain. Mai greeted Tung warmly into his house when he came to visit.
He introduced his friend to his wife, "This is closest friend when I went to school in the city. If you count the days since then, it must have been least fifteen years. Go and find food to serve to our guest." Tung saw his friend's wife listened to her husband, took the basket and left for the market.
Around noon, he saw the woman carried back a basket full of food but this time around her head was black scarf even though it was not the wind season. He did not think of much at first but not soon after when he was roaming the house he saw Mai and his wife by the restroom whispering.
He immediately hid himself on the side so they would not see him. Like something just kicked him in the face, he was shocked walking into the scene. A moment ago, Mai's wife had just taken off her scarf; however, her fine black hair on her head was no longer there.
Tung instantly questioned what had happened to her hair when Mai and his wife walked away from the restroom. Mai's wife knew that they could not keep the secret hidden any longer, she said,
"This morning there was no money when I left the house. I thought I could go and borrow some money from the neighbors but they also didn't have any. However, there was a wig factory in need of long hair, since I have it I sold it. It is only once in a lifetime a friend like you came to visit. Do you expect us only to look at each other the whole time? Please do not feel bad. Once hair has been cut it will grow again. Why worry?"
Tung felt really touched by Mai's wife words and actions. Not a moment sooner, he confessed to his friend of his life since the day they went their separate ways including the visit to Truc and how he was treated. After Tung was done talking, he took out a box of jewelry and gave to Mai's wife and said,
"The hair's root is the basic of a person. I truly regret not knowing beforehand of the situation so that you would have not sold your precious hair. Nonetheless, with that action I discovered what kind of person you are and I want to give you this as a gift. Go ahead and sell this. Spend it however you like while you wait for your hair to grow back and could find work again."
Not long after Tung returned home, he sent money to Mai and dispatched him to Nam Dinh to learn the art of dyeing clothes. When Mai finished learning the skill, Tung helped him open up a dyeing factory in the village. Their business began to grow bigger by each day and not long it became successful.
Mai took what he know and teach it to the people in the village. The dyeing skill became the most successful business that anyone ever known. And what did happen to Truc? It was not until later on he heard Tung has become an officer in the capital city that he started to regret it.
Next, he found out with Tung's helps, Mai's business was as successful as it was. "If I had known then, I would not have treated my friend poorly rather than harboring the thought he would run away with my money," he said this regretfully.
One day, Truc packed up his luggage and went to search for his two friends. When he arrived to each house, Truc received the same hospitality he had treated them. He had no choice but dragged himself home.
So, what do you think? I thought every now and then we should be remind of all the people making a different in our lives. I hope that you always surround with friend, who you can depend on. If you have any question, do contact me. From where I am and wherever you are, have a good night.

Source: http://www.culture-4-travel.com/friendship-story.html