Mother Teresa told this story to illustrate what she believed was the essence of human dignity. She had picked up a man from an open drain — his body covered in maggots — and brought him to the Missionaries of Charity's home for the dying. 'What did he say?' she asked the graduates. 'He did not curse. He didn't blame. He did not scream.' Instead, he spoke these words. Three hours later, after the sisters had cleaned him, 'he just — such a beautiful smile on his face — and he just went home to God.' Mother Teresa used the story to make her most characteristic argument: that death was 'nothing but going home to God,' and that the greatest gift one person could give another was not money or medicine but love and presence. The man's transformation from animal to angel happened not through any material intervention but through the simple act of being cared for.