It was one of those hot January days in Bangalore. The advertising agency where I worked was in Unity Buildings on Mysore Road. After having a bland vegetarian lunch at Kamath, there was hardly anything else for me to do other than wandering with the crowd that window-shopped the many shops that hugged the lower level of the complex.

A young man, maybe on his lunch break, approached me and casually asked for the water bottle I was sipping water from. I politely refused him and told him to get one from the nearby deli. He left without saying a word. But he was back in a couple of minutes and made the same demand! Again, I told him to get his own water bottle. He left without saying a word. To my surprise, he was back without a water bottle and insisted that he had to have my water bottle! I was more amused than amazed. I relented to his demand, finally. He took the water bottle and walked away without saying a word. It appeared to me that he was probably testing me in a very mysterious way.

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Even though it was only a dream, it kept me thinking about it for days before I decided to decipher its message. And the answer came from two reliable sources without any delay:
“It is better to pray sincerely and to please God by helping the poor than to be rich and dishonest. It is better to give to the poor than to store up gold. Such generosity will save you from death and will wash away all your sins. Those who give to the poor will live full lives, but those who live a life of sin and wickedness are their own worst enemies.” (Tobit 12: 8–10)

God blesses those who come to the aid of the poor and rebukes those who turn away from them: “Give to him who begs from you, do not refuse him who would borrow from you.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church: 2443)

Perhaps I wouldn’t have found a better interpretation of my dream from any other sources.