The story of a greedy adult who tried to accumulate merit but couldn't

I was hooked on Brush Up Life. It's a story where if you accumulate a lot of merit, you can be reborn as a human. If you don't, you end up as an anteater or something.

To avoid becoming an anteater, a klutz and their klutzy son competed to see who could accumulate more merit.

Let's accumulate merit

When you live with that mindset, strangely enough, your ability to spot people in trouble starts to sharpen.

While walking the dog, the klutz found a lost little boy.

Apparently, he woke up from a nap, realized his mom wasn't there, panicked, and ran outside, so I waited with him until his mom came back.

Next, I encountered an elderly woman with heavy luggage who looked like she was about to fail at crossing the railroad tracks. Is this a manga?

I encountered so many things like that.

My son said he was approached on the street by an old man who didn't know how to use his smartphone,

And apparently spent about an hour teaching him how to call his son.

He also said he helped an old woman who had fallen down.

The klutz and the son

Were talking with great satisfaction, saying, 'Alright, we've definitely accumulated a lot of merit now!'

And my daughter, who had been listening to it all quietly,

Said

Isn't virtue something that isn't meant to be accumulated by trying to accumulate it?

She said to me.

In other words, virtue accumulated for one's own greed is not virtue.
That's what she meant.

The klutz and my son were ashamed of their own greed.

And then, strangely enough, I stopped encountering people in need.

A while later, when the klutz and my daughter were out for a walk,

There was a smartphone lying on the side of the road.
The klutz picked it up and took a look, but it was set so that no calls could be made, and there was nothing I could do.

The klutz, who was already tired of trying to accumulate virtue,

I tried to leave it to someone else.

My daughter called out to me, and she started calling everyone in the smartphone's contact history one by one from her own phone.

Then, she got connected to the owner's daughter. It turned out the owner was an elderly woman living nearby. Since it was close, we decided to deliver it to her house.

A refined-looking elderly woman came out of the house, and...

"Oh my! To think such a lovely person would bring it to me! Thank you so much!"

"I'd like to thank you, so could you tell me your name and address?"

she was asked, but...

I stubbornly refused to tell her and left the scene.

After that, the elderly woman called my daughter's phone many times, and because she insisted,

we received a lot of strawberries, dog treats, and beautiful flowers.

I was curious about the gate of the elderly woman's house (it was quite impressive), so I searched for her name. (Greedy klutz)

It turned out she was a famous Yuzen dyer and a traditional craft artist.

The elderly woman invited us to her upcoming exhibition, saying we were welcome to attend.

So this is what it means to accumulate virtue.