1963年，一位叫玛莉•班尼的女孩写信给《芝加哥论坛报》，因为她实在搞不明白，为什么她帮妈妈把烤好的甜饼送到餐桌上，得到的只是一句“好孩子”的夸奖，而那个什么都不干，只知捣蛋的
大卫（她的弟弟）得到的却是一个甜饼。她想问一问无所不知的西勒•库斯特先生，上帝真的是公平的吗？为什么她在家和学校常看到一些像她这样的好孩子被上帝遗忘了。
西勒•库斯特是《芝加哥论坛报》（Chicago Tribune）儿童版栏目的主持人，十多年来，孩子们有关“上帝为什么不奖赏好人，为什么不惩罚坏人”之类的来信，他收到不下千封。每当拆阅这样的信件，他心就非常沉重，因为他不知该怎样回答这些提问。正当他对玛莉小姑娘的来信不知如何回答是好时，一位朋友邀请他参加婚礼。
也许他一生都该感谢这次婚礼，因为就是在这次婚礼上，他找到了答案，并且这个答案让他一夜之间名扬天下.
西勒•库斯特是这样回忆那场婚礼的:
牧师主持完仪式后，新娘和新郎互赠戒指，也许是他们正沉浸在幸福之中，也许是两人过于激动。总之，在他们互赠戒指时，两人阴错阳差地把戒指戴在了对方的右手上。牧师看到这一情节，幽默地提醒：右手已经够完美的了，我想你们最好还是用它来装扮左手吧。
西勒•库斯特说，正是牧师的这一幽默，让他茅塞顿开。右手成为右手，本身就非常完美了，是没有必要把饰物再戴在右手上了。那些有道德的人，之所以常常被忽略，不就是因为他们已经非常完美了吗？后来，西勒﹒库斯特得出结论，上帝让右手成为右手，就是对右手最高的奖赏，同理，上帝让善人成为善人，也就是对善人的最高奖赏。
西勒•库斯特发现这一真理后，兴奋不已，他以“上帝让你成为好孩子，就是对你的最高奖赏”为题，立即给玛莉•班尼回了一封信，这封信在《芝加哥论坛报》刊登之后，在不长的时间内，被美国及欧洲一千多家报刊转载，并且每年的儿童节他们都要重新刊载一次。
前不久，一位中国人不知在什么地方发现了这封信，读后的网页上留言说：“中国民间有一句古话，叫「恶有恶报，善有善报，不是不报，时候未到」。我曾经对恶人迟迟得不到报应感到迷惑不解。
现在我终于明白，因为 : "让恶人成为恶人, 就是上帝对他们的惩罚。”
『人为善，福虽未至，祸已远离； 人为恶，祸虽未至，福已远离』
（转载自：新浪微博 @思想箴言 的文章
http://t.cn/RAB3UoI 2015年5月5日 17:12）
Being Good Is Its Own Reward
（特别提示：本文原始出处不详）
In 1963, a girl named Mary wrote a letter to the Chicago Tribune. She expressed
that she did not understand why she had only been praised as a "good child" when
she had helped her mother set up cookies on the table. On the other hand, David,
her brother, who had not done anything and was always mischievous had received a
cookie. Therefore she wanted to ask Mr. Kuester, the writer for the KidNews
column in the Chicago Tribune, if God was really fair. Why did she see so many
good children like herself being forgotten by God at home and at school?
In the past ten years, he had received thousands of letters from children asking
questions about why God did not appear to reward good people and punish bad
people. Whenever he came across these letters, he always felt very heavy hearted
because he did not know how to respond to these questions.
At the time when he was perplexed as to how he should respond to young Mary's
letter, a friend invited him to a wedding. He would be grateful for this
occasion for the rest of his life, for it was at this wedding that he found the
answer that would make him world famous.
He recalled the wedding as follows. After the priest finished the ritual, the
bride and the groom exchanged rings. Maybe it was because they were both
immersed in happiness or they were just too excited, anyhow, they made a mistake
by putting the rings on each other's right hand. When the priest saw this, he
humorously reminded them, "The right hand is already perfect enough. I think you
should use them to decorate the left hand." Mr. Kuester said that it was this
humorous response made by the priest that inspired him.
Being the right hand is already an extremely wonderful thing for that hand, so
there is no need to add additional decorations to it. Equivalently, a moral
person is then often ignored because he or she is doing well already. Later, Mr.
Kuester arrived at this conclusion, "Letting the right hand become the right
hand is the highest reward from God. Similarly, becoming a good person is also
the highest reward that God has given to that person."
After reaching this understanding, Mr. Kuester was very excited. He immediately
replied to Mary with a letter entitled, "Making you a good child is God's
highest reward to you." Shortly after this letter was published in the Chicago
Tribune, more than a thousand newspapers in the US and in Europe reprinted it.
After that, it was reprinted each year during the Children's Festival.
Not long ago, a Chinese person found this letter printed somewhere. After
reading it, he left a message on the Chicago Tribune homepage via the Internet
that said, "There is an old saying in China, 'Doing good deeds is met with good
rewards while being evil is met with evil returns. Just because the time has not
yet come doesn't mean that there is no retribution.' I was once confused as to
why an evil person never seemed to receive retribution, but now I finally
understand. Making him an evil person is the punishment that God has given him."
November 22, 2002