Common Sense is the Highest Knowledge

When you give someone something free for the first time, it awakens in them a kind of wonder.

When you give someone something free for the second time, it awakens in them a kind of anticipation.

When you give someone something free for the third time, it awakens in them a kind of expectation.

When you give someone something free for the fourth time, it awakens in them a kind of entitlement.

When you give someone something free for the fifth time, it awakens in them a kind of dependence.

And then, if that person ever discovers that you no longer give them what they need without payment, they become genuinely angry and treat you poorly, or they harbor ill will toward you and spread baseless talk. Rather than dwell on what they received from you, or dwell on it at all, they will instead ask themselves: why aren't you helping them in the way they think you should? It will never occur to them to wonder why you should give them your time or your help at all. Those who lack common sense or possess none—they know how to demand, how to extract; they want everything for free.

What is more precious than time? In most cases, time given away without reason bears little fruit. A stranger receives another's time for only two reasons—because they bring joy, or because they bring payment. Our sorrow does not touch the stranger without cause.

A person can forgive even a deceiver, but they cannot easily forgive someone from whom they have received unrequested help without payment, if that person later fails to deliver what was expected. They cannot bring themselves to approach someone to whom they gave everything, only to receive sorrow in return—and yet, paradoxically, they expect someone they have never even met to solve their problems without cause, or at the very least to give them their time; and when they do not receive it, they grow angry and speak harsh words. The number of such peculiar people is beyond counting.

Our knowledge grows, but our common sense shrinks.