a 10-year old thief

A 10-year old thief

I recently received a letter that lent me reason to pause.

It was written in pencil and it was from a 10-year old boy whom I did not know.

Apparently, while visiting our cabin with his parents, the youngster opened a box in the game closet and found a wad of cash (several hundred dollars) that did not belong to him or me. His first instinct was to take it, so he did.

Later that day he told his mom that he had some money and a little detective work by her uncovered the facts. She made him write the letter.

In his letter, the lad told me about his Mom, his Aunt, his Uncle, and his Grandpa. Apparently they all had a talk with him. He apologized for what he did and he was clearly sorry. I thought how fortunate he is for being surrounded by people of such fine character.

I recalled a lesson that my own father once shared with me when I was a junior in high school and Mark and I nearly emptied a full bottle of dad’s bourbon. BURP! PUKE! My dad seemed to have the right balance of recognizing that “boys will be boys” and that people can learn from their mistakes.

Sadly, some kids move from fairly innocent mistakes like Danny's misdeed into much more tragic situations. According to the office of Juvenile Justice there are over a milllion juveniles rotting away in jails right now.

All kids screw up but some of their violent crimes are hard to believe. Danny is luckier than many of those youngsters. These are among the benefits of having loving families.

Following is the letter I sent back to the youngster.

Dear Danny (not his real name),

The jails are filled with people who steal things that do not belong to them. Many of those people never had good parents or a good Uncle or Grandpa to help them when they made their mistakes. You are very fortunate to have such good people to guide you.

When I was a young fellow my father told me that everybody makes mistakes, but it is how you deal with your mistakes that determines how successful you will be.

My father would be very impressed by the way you have handled this.

You have learned to face your mistakes, even when it is hard to do.

I hope to meet you someday. Your letter proves that you are a fine fellow after all.

I forgive you because you deserve it and because I have made mistakes too.

Sincerely,

Mr. Thyfault

I think his parents grounded him for a couple weeks for taking something that didn’t belong to him and they also hugged him for being so truthful.

When it comes to Danny’s family it is like I said earlier, the jails are filled with people who were not so lucky.

Your Comments are welcomed