British writer and author Douglas Adams, liked to tell a story about not jumping to conclusions about people.

In April 1976, he was sitting in the waiting area of a railroad station, and he had placed a package of cookies and a newspaper on the table in front of him. A stranger next to him suddenly reached across, opened Adams’ bag of cookies, and started to eat them.

Douglas Adams said nothing. But he took a cookie from the bag as well. Soon the bag was empty, as both men ate from it. When the stranger left for his train, Adams picked up his newspaper—and found his bag of cookies underneath it. Rather than a stranger eating his cookies, he had been eating someone else’s cookies.

Adams’ take on the lesson learned is look to yourself first before you assume anything of another person, “Otherwise, you’ll wonder why it seems that someone else is eating your cookies.”

Douglas Adams is the author of the bestselling book “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”