I recently stumbled across an article and immediately got reeled in by the title: “A Man Stole This Woman’s Wallet, and You Won’t Believe What Happened Next”. Like anyone else reading, I wanted to know what happened next. Usually, I skip to the bottom or speed read to see what happens. You could say I’m impatient. But don’t. For some reason, I ended up reading this whole article and what I read really sent me into deep thought.
To paraphrase the article, a woman is in the grocery store and realizes her wallet is missing only moments after a man stole it from her. Instead of doing what most of us would do and getting the authorities involved, she calmly walked over to him and gave him a choice. The choice to make on his own to right his wrong. He could either give her the wallet back and she would pay for his groceries or she could call the cops. Naturally, he chose to give her the wallet back and have his groceries paid for while apologizing profusely all the way to the register. This isn’t the impressive part of the story to me. What’s impressive is that the woman who got her wallet stolen, in this case the victim, gave him a choice. She saw the good in a man who had, on all accounts, ‘done her wrong’. I envy her ability to remove herself from the situation at hand and see it for what it really was: a struggling father who had resorted to stealing to provide for his children. A remorseful human being who made a mistake and deserved a second chance.
Many things can be taken away from this story. There are good people in the world. People make mistakes. Everyone deserves a second chance. There are still compassionate individuals in this crazy world we live in. I could go on and on because there are so many incredible morals that could be learned/taught from this article. I encourage you to read the full article if this peaked your interest and you could use a feel-good story. I also urge, no insist, that if you’re reading this you open your mind to how you treat people and recklessly abandon all notions of cynicism.
Be kind to one another. You never know what someone else is going through or the difference you can make in their day.