# Nick's kindness cracked the 'dog'

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-nick-kindness-cracks-the-dog
- Themes: kindness, prison, patience, enemies
- Life situations: hostile colleague, giving up on someone

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

Prisoner Nick at Karnet serves a hated senior officer who ignores him. Brahm challenges him to put love into tea and biscuits for months. Breakthrough: special coffee gets a grunt; special biscuits get a 'thank you' — the wall cracks; grapevine carries the news.

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

senior prison officer and Nick's job was actually to serve him some tea and coffee or just look after his office, clean it up and stuff. And he said he really tried to be kind to this what they call "dog" of a prison officer that's what he called him, this "dog". But this prison officer would not even acknowledge his existence. And so we had this test, competition, and of course you know who won the competition because otherwise I wouldn't tell you in the story... But anyway this... I asked him “look, when you get him a cup of tea or a coffee, get him some biscuits or sandwiches or anything you can rustle up and really put some love into that tea or coffee you're giving this man”. "It won't work" "oh come on, you know me, I've known you for a long time, just give it a try". So every week I'd go there to teach and I would ask him "how's it going?" “Hopeless. I really go that extra effort for him to make the tea how he likes it and gave him something he likes to eat but I just put it in front of him "got some nice sandwich here for you sir" he doesn't even say anything, he just totally ignores me. It's like he doesn't even see me, like I don't exist”. "Carry on." I remember the time, it was a long time, about three months if I remember correctly, when we got our breakthrough [chuckles] and the breakthrough was he got some sort of special coffee from somewhere and just gave it to the prison officer “Here you are sir, I've got some really nice coffee for you today sir. I got it from somewhere or other. I hope you'll like it.” And the prison officer didn't look at him but just said "uhh". [laughter] Just grunted. And that grunt was amazing, You know, he actually acknowledged a prisoner. And I said that this is it, the wall is cracked, carry-on, won't take long. And it didn't, about another month and he got some biscuits, some special biscuits, you know, which the prison officer likes and he gave... “I got some really nice biscuits for you here today so I hope you like them” and the prison officer turned around and said "thank you" to the prisoner

## Teaching point

Persistent kindness can crack even a 'dog' who pretends you do not exist.

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

Nick, a prisoner, served tea to an officer who ignored him. Ajahn Brahm told him to put love into every cup. Months later came a grunt for the coffee, then a thank-you for the biscuits, and the prison grapevine spread the news statewide. Keep being kind to the unloving. The seed takes time.

## Source

- [Flowing with Uncertainty | Ajahn Brahm | 23 April 2021](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnl34X-eDE8) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 49:36 to 52:06: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnl34X-eDE8&t=2976s

Other tellings of this story:

- [Why I Became a Monk | Ajahn Brahm | 28 March 2025](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-U28g_SVuc) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 1:01:31 to 1:05:16: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-U28g_SVuc&t=3691s
- [Develop Your Heart |Ajahn Brahm | 2 Dec 2016](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UDa1XujJow) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 21:24 to 27:15: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UDa1XujJow&t=1284s