Hopes

I had heard this story when I was a kid.
There was a school in a small village. The students who were studying there were poor. Rachana was teaching in the school. Suresh was a 5 year old boy in her class.
One day Rachana took her class to the beach. Suresh and his friends started to play on the beach. Suresh found a shell. He started telling his friends that he has found a pearl and that he will sell it and become rich. When Rachana saw him telling this, she told him that the chance of pearl in that shell is very low.
Suresh showed the shell to his grandfather and told him that he has found a pearl. The old man smiled to him and said indeed you have found a pearl. Suresh became very happy and went to play.
Rachana was a realistic person. She confronted the old man and said that the chance of the shell having a pearl is one in a million so why is he raising the hope of the small boy. The old man replied that, indeed the chance of having pearl in the shell were very low, but it was not zero. Sometimes, there are only hopes that a person can live by; and the hopes need not be broken before time.
Whenever I get into a situation that looks difficult and outcome are dim, I am reminded of this story.
How true that Sometimes there are only hopes that a person can live by.