Two shopkeepers had their shops next to one another. One shopkeeper, Gurmukh used to close his shop early and go to see Guru Nanak Dev ji. The other shopkeeper Manmukh asked Gurmukh that why you close your shop early he said he goes to see Guru Nanak Dev Ji. Manmukh also started closing his shop early but instead started going to a bad place. Both kept on going to their places.

One day Manmukh asked Gurmukh to go home together and agreed upon a place to meet after visiting their places, so that they can go to their homes together. Manmukh came to meeting place early because the door was locked at a place where he used to go. He found golden ring there by digging through pile of ashes. He was happy. Gurmukh was on his way to a meeting place and thorn (kanda) hit his foot. So he was in pain and came to a meeting place limping. Manmukh told Gurmukh that he used to go to a bad place and found a golden ring but you used to go to a good place and are in pain. Gurmukh told Manmukh there may be something behind this and asked him to go to see Guru Nanak Dev Ji next day. Both asked Guru Ji why it happened like this. Guru ji asked " Do you know what you did in the past life?" Both said no. Guru you told Manmukh, you donated golden ring in the past life and in this life you were going to get many golden rings but every day you used to go to bad place, the golden ring turned into ashes. One golden ring is left because you could not go to bad place on the last day. Guru Ji told Gurmukh, you were supposed to be hanged but because you started coming to our place, hanging has changed to pain of a thorn.

Dukh and Sukh in our present life are the result of deeds done in our previous lives. Gurbani says on 1030 "Sukh dukh purab janam kay kiye, so jane jin datay diye. Kis tu dosh deh tu parani suh apna kiya karaa hai". We can reduce the pains and sufferings of this life by devoting time toward WaheGuru (Naam Japna, Paath, Keertan, changae karam karnae etc.). This will neutralize the effects of bad deeds done in the previous lives. Let us all devote at least 2.5 hours daily for Nitnem and all the time say WaheGuru in your mind. Repeating WaheGuru WaheGuru ..... WaheGuru is the most powerful way especially at Amrit vela. Keep doing that everyday without any break, not only your this life will be better but you will reap the benefits after this life also.