There was a very mean man named Mr. Black who lived on the sixth floor of an apartment building. He was so impolite to his neighbors that no one even knew his first name was Adam. He never said hello to anyone, and he left his rubbish out in the hallway. He always complained (抱怨) about all his neighbors and the noise they made. He even got upset when the couple who lived next door to him, Catherine and David, had a baby. Instead of saying congratulations, he loudly complained about how the baby would surely cry all night.

One day when he was leaving his apartment, Mr. Black saw that his rubbish was gone. In its place, he found a note from David. “Good morning, Mr. Black. I saw your rubbish here, and since I was on my way out, I picked it up for you. I wanted to save you a trip. Have a nice day, David.” However, Mr. Black decided to ignore this act of kindness. He began thinking about the terrible traffic he would surely have to deal with on his way to work.

But as time went on, Mr. Black started to feel a little silly. No matter how impolite he was, the couple always smiled at him and politely said hello. It became harder and harder for him not to simply say hello back.

After a few weeks, Mr. Black was always happy to see the couple in the hall. They even started calling him Adam. Later on, they invited Mr. Black into their apartment for a cup of coffee. Mr. Black was very glad that they treated him nicely. He was so upset about it that he had been impolite to everyone he knew. He realized that he should try to do the same with the people he met.