The Coffee Bean
An elderly lady is showing her grandchild a valuable lesson in life.
She boils three things in a pot of water; a carrot, an egg and a coffee bean.
The carrot goes soft, the egg goes hard, but the coffee bean stays the same, only the the water changes colour.
The lady explains that the boiling water symbolises a traumatic period for all of the objects and all of the objects can be compared to a person who has been through a traumatic period.
The carrot is the person who went into the situation hard and has come out soft and weak.
The egg is the person who went into the situation soft and has come out hardened by the experience.
The coffee bean, however, is the person who was not been changed by the experience but has used the experience to change (and help) those around them