The Cloth Merchant and the Charcoal Burner
A coalman lives in a black, dusty shop. His neighbour is a tailor with snow-white cloth. The tailor cleans the clothes in cool water. The coalman smiles and invites the tailor home.
"Come and live under my roof," he says. "We eat bread together and we are friends." The tailor sees the dust and shakes his head.
The tailor speaks with a kind, strong voice. "This is impossible and dangerous," he says. "Your black dust makes my white cloth dirty." "I can never wash your black soot away."
He who touches pitch soon becomes dirty too.