When I was in schools, a friend of mine borrowed my notebook to catch up with some of the classes he had missed. And not to my knowledge, copied one of the essays, that I had written. He then used it for an essay competition, which he ended up winning. When I got to know, I felt cheated, I was very upset and felt that this was sheer stealing. Another time, a Ph.D. Student told me that her professor took her research paper and published it in his name. People working in the corporate world have told me that they the reports they laboriously made stolen by their colleagues. Authors have often complained of plagiarism as well.

Surely whichever area of work that we maybe we shouldn’t be with people who have such a corrupt, distorted mindset. At the same time, we should also remember that what we possess, is way beyond an essay, way beyond the research paper or report. A bird once asked honeybee, you work so hard, you toil so much, you put so much effort and energy to make and store honey and then the man comes and steals it, do not be sad. The honey bee replied yes, I do feel sad at that moment, but then I remind myself that the only thing that man can steal from me, is my honey. He can never steal the art of making honey that I possess.

Again, we certainly need to deal with such cheating in the practical way. Well, we also need to be aware that people can best copy our creation, not our creativity, they can at best steal our technique, not our talent. They can imitate what we do, but cannot take away our ability to inspire, which is why I say, focus on and grow that which no one can steal and let everything else simply be a manifest result of it.