Once upon a time there was a king who had two sons. One son was optimistic and grateful for everything the father did for him. The other son was pessimistic and never grateful for anything the father did for him.
One day the king decided to try an experiment. He gave his ungrateful son a brand new pony. Then he gave his grateful son a room full of manure. Several hours later the king went to check on his two sons.
First he found his ungrateful son. The boy was crouched in a corner frowning and grumbling to himself.
"What's wrong? the king asked. "I just gave you a new pony."
The son answered, "Now you probably expect me to feed it and clean up after it."
The king left the grouchy son and went to check on his other son. He found him smiling, happy and shoveling manure over his shoulder as fast as he could.
"Son," the king said. "What are you doing? Face reality. Don't you realize you are in a room full of manure?"
The grateful son answered, "Oh father thank you. With all this manure in here, there's got to be a pony in here somewhere."
At days end the king took the pony away from the ungrateful son and gave it to his grateful son.
So you see . . . there really was a pony in there somewhere.
