30 Years After Little Boy Steals Chocolate, Store Gets Apology Letter & Money in Mail
When my children do something wrong to each other — say, get too rough and tumble during play time or blurt out some really biting insult — my wife and I don’t let them off the hook with a simple “sorry.” We make them add, “Please forgive me.”
There might not seem like much of a difference between the two apologies, but there is. One expresses a personal emotion, while the other acknowledges an offense that exists outside of oneself, an offense that doesn’t go away no matter how bad you may feel.
Yes, it’s important to experience sorrow for the bad things you’ve done. But we should all also repent and try to make them right, no matter how long ago the transgressions occurred.
An anonymous German man understood that full well. See, in 1971, a 200-year-old display Bible from Holy Trinity Church in Hastings, England, went missing, and the German was the culprit.
Why did he take it? He’d been studying English in the U.K. and thought that swiping an “unused” compendium of Scripture might help him acquire the language.
“Some of the lessons were held in the church premises and he said he saw these bibles just sitting there, unused he felt,” Simon Scott, the current treasurer of Holy Trinity, told the BBC. “And by some sort of compensation for this very poor, expensive course, he decided to take one and try and read it at home and improve his English that way.”
After 42 years, the man’s conscience finally got the best of him. He returned the Bible in 2013.
British cab driver Abubakar Lorgat experienced something similar in 2016. Twelve years earlier, Lorgat had discovered his wallet was missing after a long day of work.
The worst part of the whole ordeal was that he had more than £200 in it. Yet one day he arrived home to find a letter waiting for him — a letter than contained £250.
“I inadvertently stole from you approximately 10 to 15 years ago,” the anonymous note said. “I am really sorry about this and hope you find in your heart to forgive me.
“I enclose some money to cover the money stolen from you.” Lorgat was thrilled and said, “It warms your heart that someone can do wrong and then years later put it right.”
Yes, it is, and another thief decided to do the same even though the transgression occurred more than four decades ago. In July, Liverpool’s Belle Vale Shopping Centre received a handwritten note with £5 in it.
The note was addressed to Woolworths, a once-popular supermarket chain. It read, “I stole two bars of chocolate from Woolworths in your shopping centre in 1975 when I was a little boy.
“I apologise. I didn’t know any better. Here’s the money I owe you for them.”
There was only one problem: That particular Woolworths location no longer exists.
However, the shopping center decided to donate the money to a children’s nonprofit, and a spokesman said, “Belle Vale Shopping Centre wants to thank the sender and acknowledge his apology. It is a positive message that is worth sharing to encourage all to be kind.”
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