Tirukkural-On Virtue-On Being Grateful-Kural 109

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The following translation is based on Thiru K Srinivasan's rendering:

Even a deadly hurt is soon effaced,
If one recollects a past good turn.

A wrong that one suffers at another's hands, even if it is as painful as death, could be forgotten in the fond and lingering remembrance of the one good thing, that was done by the same person before. For, as Parimelalagar would say, the small good turn is according to Valluvar's precept considered as being big as a palm tree:

Thinaithunai panaithunaiyaakak kollapaduthal
Rajaji would comment on this as follows:

'this is yet another instance of Thiruvalluvar's characteristic way of giving helpful practical hints to achieve what may otherwise seem to be a mere counsel of perfection, thus showing what a great master of psyhchology Valluvar was'.

In this context we may recall the Chinese proverb which says,

'For the sake of one good action,
a hundred evil ones should be forgotten.'

The following passage in Kurunthogai is also relevant as it conveys the same idea:

Oru nanrudaya laayinum puri maandu
pulavi theera alimadhi

After all, no one is all good or all bad. Even the so-called bad ones have some good in them. At some time earlier on, actuated by the little good in them, they might have done a good turn. The recollection of that single good action should enable one to forget even a hundred wrongs', according to the Chinese proverb quoted earlier. The purport of the present Kural is also the same.