TITLE:Almighty Helps Is Those Who Help Themselves

There lived a blind man in a village. He could hardly earn and pass his days with difficulty. There also lived a lame man in that village. He also suffered from want of food. They had no one to look after them. One day they met each other while passing a market. Actually both of them were begging in there. They came to know each other about their condition. Then they discussed among themselves how to get rid of this condition. Both of them were determined that they must do something by themselves for their livelihood.

One idea came to their mind they might do some small business instead of begging in the market. But the problem was who would give them capital. Somebody advised them to go to Grameen Bank who gave loans to beggars without any collateral. Then they contacted the local branch of Grameen Bank and became the member of Grameen Bank. The manager of that branch was very helpful. She arranged everything on her own initiatives and sanctioned a loan of Tk.5000 for each of them. The condition was that they had to replay with interest in twenty four monthly instalments. The manager found both of them very enthusiastic about themselves and gave them some tips about doing small businesses. The blind man started a small grocery shop in the local market. He employed a boy on the basis of profit sharing to do all the transactions. The boy was a relative too. But the blind man was always in the shop to look after everything. The nearby people were enthusiastic and they used to help him through groceries from them. Within six months his business became established and he could pat his instalments in due time.

On the other hand, the lame man started a vegetable shop there and he could mmanage everything by himself. Due to honesty he could even buy his vegetable from the whole seller on credit. Gradually his shop was one of the biggest one in the locality. He too could reply the instalments in due time. Both of them repaid the whole amount with interest within the stipulated period. In the next phase they got higher amount of money as loan and continue their business and thus became self-reliant.