The guy looked at the old man’s heart and laughed:
“You might be joking, old man!” Compare your heart to mine! Mine is perfect! And yours! Yours is a jumble of scars and tears!
“Yes,” answered the old man, “your heart looks perfect, but I would never agree to exchange our hearts.” Look! Every scar on my heart is a person to whom I gave my love - I tore out a piece of my heart and gave it to that person. And he often gave me his love in return - his piece of his heart, which filled the empty spaces in mine. But since the pieces of different hearts don't exactly fit together, so I have ragged edges in my heart that I cherish because they remind me of the love we shared.....
.Sometimes I gave pieces of my heart, but other people did not return theirs to me - so you can see empty holes in the heart - when you give your love there is not always a guarantee of reciprocity. And although these holes hurt, they remind me of the love I shared, and I hope that one day these pieces of heart will return to me.
Now do you see what true beauty means?
The crowd froze. The young man stood silently, stunned. Tears flowed from his eyes.
He approached the old man, took out his heart and tore a piece from it. With trembling hands, he offered a piece of his heart to the old man. The old man took his gift and inserted it into his heart. Then he responded by tearing a piece from his beaten heart and inserting it into the hole that had formed in the young man's heart. The piece fit, but not perfectly, and some of the edges were protruding and some were torn......
The young man looked at his heart, no longer perfect, but more beautiful than it had been before the old man's love touched it.
And they hugged and walked down the road.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru