Gandhi and the Sweets

In his book, What's your Purpose?', Richard Jacobs writes about an interesting incident in the life of Mahatma Gandhi.

One day, a lady came to Gandhi and asked him an interesting request.

She asked Gandhi to tell her child to stop eating sweets.

Gandhi's reply was equally as unusual. He asked her to come back with her child in two weeks.

Two weeks had passed when the lady returned to Gandhi with her child.

She again asked Gandhi to tell her child to stop eating sweets. At that time, Gandhi turned to the child and told him to stop eating sweets.

The lady was perplexed and asked Gandhi why he did not tell the child to stop eating sweets when she first asked him to. Gandhi simply said that two weeks ago, he too was eating sweets!

The measure of a great man is how well he takes his own advice. This story shows Gandhi's greatness, as he would not tell others to not do something that he himself was doing. This measure of character showed that before he would advise others to change a fault in themselves, he would first ammend this within his own character. This is leadership in its truest sense.