Tears

Mma Ramotswe had a gift for the American woman, a basket, which Mma Ramotswe bought from a poor woman on the side of the road. It was a traditional Botswana basket, with a design worked into the weaving.

"These little marks here are tears," she said. "The giraffe gives its tears to the women and they weave them into the basket."

"You are very kind, Mma Ramotwe," she said. "But why did the giraffe give its tears?"

Mma Ramotse shrugged; she ahd never thought about it. "I suppose that it means that we can all give something," she said. "A giraffe has nothing else to give--only tears."

Excerpt from Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith (p.226-7)