A
Thief's Story
There was a story about a thief, a very, very great thief. He committed
so many crimes and killings that the government decided to hang him.
So, before a person is executed, he is entitled to one last personal
wish. He was very famous; they had hunted him for many decades before
they caught him. He was a big robber, without any repentance and without
any conscience. He killed people like chopping bananas.
Now
his last wish was that he wanted to see his mother. Everyone was surprised
that he even had affection for his mother. But they thought, "Well,
in the whole world no one probably loves him, so he must have love
for the mother. And the mother is the only one who loves him, so it's
natural that he wants to see his mother."
So
the mother was fetched to see him. And many people came to see his
execution because everyone knew about him. It was a big gathering,
and he was in the middle. Then the mother came, and he embraced her.
Suddenly, the mother began crying very loudly and then fainted on
the ground. On the side of her head, she was bleeding. Then people
saw that in his mouth there was her ear. And the people rushed up
to him, saying, "What happened? Why did you bite your mother's
ear off?" So he took the ear up and pointed to the mother and
said, "She is the real criminal, not I. You made the wrong judgment."
And
he started to tell the story. When he was a young schoolboy, his family
had enough to live on; they weren't poor but weren't wealthy. One
day, he forgot his pen and he borrowed one from his classmate. But
he forgot to give it back, and he brought it home. And he told his
mother, "Oh, look, I forgot to give back my classmate's pen that
I borrowed! I must go back and give it to him now because otherwise
he will miss it."
And
the mother said, "No, no! You keep it! Keep it! Tomorrow you
borrow ink and then books, and don't give them back. See what happens.
Then I won't have to buy them for you. If they forget, it's good.
What's in your hands belongs to you. What you can take is yours."
But when some of the classmates wanted their things back, the child
didn't know what to do. So he came home and said, "Mother, they
want their things back! Can I give them back? Is it OK?"
And
his mother said, "No, no! Next time you have to punch them! Say,
'No, it's mine!'" She taught him how to steal by force, even
in childhood. So slowly he stole bigger and bigger things for himself
and for the mother, at the mother's command. First he bit people,
then forced them, and later he killed. He killed even when it was
not necessary; it became a habit.
|
|
