Help Others.org: Turning Fear Into True Compassion -- A Kindness Story

Rekha maintains an exercise regime that includes a brisk walk every morning around some gardens in our neighbourhood. One morning, she was walking earlier then usual, daybreak was only just beginning to set in and it was still relatively dark.

As she was walking, a cyclist came up to her, snatched her handbag (containing her keys, phone and credit cards) and sped off with it! She ran after him shouting "thief - thief". A man further ahead must have heard her, or seen what had happened. He was washing a car and had a bucket of water with him. He grabbed the bucket and threw the water on to the cyclist.

The cyclisst, caught off guard, drove off the pavement and his bike fell over. The other people in the park rushed over and surrounded him. My friend Rekha was worried that the people would try and beat him up, as often happens in India, and so she pleaded with them not to hurt him.

She bent down and asked the man why he did this to her? He was extremely repentent and explained that he was the son of a poor farmer and that this year their crops had failed. He said that the money lenders had threatened to beat up his father and hurt their family if they didn't pay on time. He said that he was absolutely desperate and didn't know what else to do. He was very sorry.

Rekha was deeply moved by this story. She could see that boy was young and he was so skinny and bonny. She looked into the boy's eyes and said that she forgave him. She then pulled out some money from her handbag and gave it to him. She told him that stealing was wrong and that he shouldn't do it again. He said he wouldn't. He said he was from a good family and well brought up and that he had made a terrible mistake.

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20 comments: page 1 | 2

williams wrote: Hey you know what there are very vew people who can hardly take time to know what motivated someone to do a certain thing, so this is an eye opening, thanx for sharing this story sathsath

Brittani wrote: Aw. :] i love this. I work retail and i always feel bad instantly when someone steals. Like if someone steals toothpaste or something like that. I just wish i could have witnessed them stealing it and helped them out. Lovely story. :]

Mars… wrote: Nice heart …what she had done is very reasonable …she've done the best to the harmonious society o∩_∩o

arindamb1234 wrote: Rekha has shown her true compassion and identified the helplessness of the bag snatcher. She has realized the reason for committing crimes but all criminals and their lineage have such a story to relate for their criminal history to begin. Had she berated her a little and took some intiatives to coucel the culprit that there were other ways to make a living she might have not taken the man's excuse as a reason for the crime. The rehabilitation of such kind of innocent criminals at the very early state may help creation of hardcore criminals. In india the bag snatching incidences are rampant. The polititians fill their pockets with illgotten wealth and pamper hard core corrupt officials administrtors and criminals. Thus the root cause of criminalism is never nipped in the bud. Telgi,kawada and similar listless outlaws criminals thrive.

Arindam

cyrilsmom wrote: Extremly touching. A lesson for all of us. Instead of jumping into the pit of anger,keep eyes open for the real reason

Deb wrote: A lesson for us all. Every action has a positive intention

Amy wrote: Forgiveness is amazing, for the recipient and also the one forgiving. What a beautiful story.

AndaLii wrote: Goes to show that pre-judging is usually a mistake while compassionate understanding is best.

Morgan highschool wrote: Forgiveness is very hard and we forget how to forgive sometimes,expecially in high school. What this woman had done was sometimes very hard and we all need to relearn how. Thanks so much for the story

sethi wrote: Thank you rekha for who you were.

Turning Fear Into True Compassion

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