Synopsis (from memory):>! the narrator is a passenger on the steamship somewhere in Asia, in the early 1900s. One of the other passengers is a mixed-race salesman of pearls. By race and class, he is at least one rung below his fellow travellers. !<
>!He’s also presented as something of an annoying character, always trying to impress. As a result, the narrator christens him Mr. Know-All One evening, he gets his chance to show that he is not as insubstantial as his fellow travellers all see, complacently, to have assumed. !<
>!A particularly pompous passenger insists that his wife’s jewellery is made of fake imitation pearls. Mr. Know-All not only knows this to be untrue but has the expertise to explain, damningly, why it cannot be true, because the pearls are both real and expensive.!<
>!Then he looks at wife’s face and sees her fear. If he reveals now that the pearls are real, he will undoubtedly make his tormentor look foolish in front of everyone. But he will also expose the fact that someone has given the man’s young wife a gift of expensive pearls that she has been passing off as a fake.!<
>!Mr. Know-All swallows his pride. He says that his has been mistaken. The pearls are fake. His tormentor smugly lords it over him. But by this time, the reader, the narrator, and above all the young wife have cause to have formed a very different estimate of Mr. Know-All’s character. And in the wife’s case, she has reason to be profoundly grateful to him.!<
Maybe not exactly what you were after. But hopefully not light years off target.
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Hmm. Mr. Know-All by Somerset Maugham does cover gratitude, though it’s not the only theme.
It appears in the collection [On A Chinese Screen](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/93691632-on-a-chinese-screen). But you can read it for free here:
[https://drnissani.net/mnissani/world/Mr%20Know-All.htm](https://drnissani.net/mnissani/world/Mr%20Know-All.htm)
Synopsis (from memory):>! the narrator is a passenger on the steamship somewhere in Asia, in the early 1900s. One of the other passengers is a mixed-race salesman of pearls. By race and class, he is at least one rung below his fellow travellers. !<
>!He’s also presented as something of an annoying character, always trying to impress. As a result, the narrator christens him Mr. Know-All One evening, he gets his chance to show that he is not as insubstantial as his fellow travellers all see, complacently, to have assumed. !<
>!A particularly pompous passenger insists that his wife’s jewellery is made of fake imitation pearls. Mr. Know-All not only knows this to be untrue but has the expertise to explain, damningly, why it cannot be true, because the pearls are both real and expensive.!<
>!Then he looks at wife’s face and sees her fear. If he reveals now that the pearls are real, he will undoubtedly make his tormentor look foolish in front of everyone. But he will also expose the fact that someone has given the man’s young wife a gift of expensive pearls that she has been passing off as a fake.!<
>!Mr. Know-All swallows his pride. He says that his has been mistaken. The pearls are fake. His tormentor smugly lords it over him. But by this time, the reader, the narrator, and above all the young wife have cause to have formed a very different estimate of Mr. Know-All’s character. And in the wife’s case, she has reason to be profoundly grateful to him.!<
Maybe not exactly what you were after. But hopefully not light years off target.