Mrs.  Nguyen Thi Thin , 78 years old, lives alone in a three-room house in the middle of Phu Trach village. Her husband passed away a long time ago, and her three children have all married and moved out. She does not live with anyone because she is “used to living alone”. The whole neighborhood respects her for her gentle and frugal life, and she owns a 300m² plot of land on the road that has just been planned as urban residential land – worth up to tens of billions.

Yet early in the morning of the first day of the month, the whole neighborhood was stunned to see  Mr. Thin sell all his land , collect money, pack his suitcase, and  go to the city to “live with his eldest grandson”  –  Cu Bi , the son of his eldest son.

He said: “I am old, I will live with you for the happiness of the family. The money from selling the land will be divided equally among the children. The rest will be saved to help you with your education.”

The villagers exclaimed: “Mr. Thin is really wise and knows how to plan ahead…”

A neighbor – Ms. Hao – on a business trip to Hanoi happened to stop by the boarding house near Long Bien market and  was shocked to see Mr. Thin… sitting and selling vegetables on the street , wearing a torn raincoat, his hands trembling as he counted each stalk of water spinach.

“Oh my God! What… what are you doing here? Where is your grandchild?”

Mr. Thin looked up, his eyes were cloudy with tears, his hand quickly wiped his runny nose: “He said I was old, the house was too small, it was bothering him and his wife… he forced me to rent a room. After two days, the money I gave him disappeared. Unable to rent a house, I came here…”

Ms. Hao was stunned. When asked further, the old man said: after selling the land for nearly  8.2 billion , he divided 2 billion for each child, kept more than  2 billion for himself and for his old age.  He trusted to give all that money to his eldest grandson –  Cu Bi , because “he studied banking, knows how to save money”.

Who would have thought… two weeks later, he found out that  his nephew took the money to give to his mother (his daughter-in-law) to buy a villa , and invested the rest in “cryptocurrency” and lost everything.

When he asked again, the whole family  blamed him for being senile, asking for the money back unreasonably, and regretting giving it away . Then they  kicked him out of the house .

After returning to the village, Ms. Hao told the whole neighborhood about the incident. The whole neighborhood was shocked and indignant.

The neighborhood chief – who used to be an old friend of Mr. Thin’s husband – quietly found  the will that Mr. Thin had written 5 years ago , which had not been destroyed. It clearly stated:  All of her assets – even after being sold – would belong to a charity fund if she died without any support.

The law intervened.

Based on the story and specific evidence, the authorities re-examined the transaction records. They discovered signs of  fraud, appropriating the elderly’s property , forcing people who were not of sound mind to sign and cancel old wills.

Cu Bi and his mother were prosecuted and investigated. Mr. Thin was taken to a city-sponsored nursing home where he was cared for, respected, and participated in growing vegetables and reading books with other elderly people.

In a small interview with local radio, he said:

“I lost my house and money, but now I understand: blood is not what keeps people decent. Only people’s hearts are.”

The word “filial piety” is not in the household register, nor in the wallet. It is in every meal, every place to sleep, every choice when the loved ones have nothing left.