A Robber in a Decent Attire

Mary Anne, a school mate, theater sorority sister and simply a friend of mine was on her way to school on board a multicab (a mini jeepney-type of public transportation in Cebu, Philippines that can accommodate eight to ten passengers).  She was wearing her university uniform – a white female dress shirts-type of blouse with V-shaped neck line and an A-line type of navy blue knee-level skirt. It was just one of those normal weekdays where she heads off for school in the morning.

A few blocks away from where Mary Anne hopped into the multicab, a man clad in dark (almost in black shade) decent dress shirt also got into the multicab and sat beside her. He took the seat at the left side of my friend. The man looked like he was in his early thirties or late twenties but he seemed to look older than his average age because of some darker spots on his neatly trimmed face.

His hair was neatly in place and the dress shirts he is wearing (it looks like he has a white inner shirt) is also tidily pressed and looks really presentable. He looks like any respectable man with an office-type of work. Mary Anne even assumed that he’s a medical representative because of the type of brown leather suit-case-type of hand bag he’s bringing.

When Mary Anne reached school on General Maxilom Avenue, she just realized that her big wallet with all her identification cards, ATMs and school allowances were gone, and to make things worse, she found out that there was a big tear on the left side of her bag. Later did she realized why the presentable-looking man in dark and neat dress shirt covered his hands with his brown hand bag. She also realized that while on the multicab earlier, she felt slight movements at her left side.

She just ignored the idea of being robbed because she didn’t suspect a well-dressed man to do such crime. It was very unlikely of a robber to dress up well, because their usual features are rugged and badly-dressed in ordinary-looking shirts and faded denim pants. 

A simple rule that we should keep in mind, do not judge a person by the way they look. Sometimes, the security we felt in prejudice is like a lion dressed in a lamb skin.

The Students' Stolen Lunches

Grade one students from Lapu-Lapu City Central School were crying when they found out they lost their food for lunches.

The teacher from that class wondered who would do such act. So, one morning, when the students were out of their classroom for an activity, she spied the empty classroom to know who the culprit was. She saw one of her female grade one students rummaging through the lunch boxes and bags of her classmates, took their rice and viands and gather them in one plastic bag. The student then slowly went out of the classroom and out of the school. The teacher followed the student in her aim to tell the parents about what their child did at school. The teacher continued following the student until she was led to a small, tattered shack where the student entered.

The teacher hid a few meters away from the house where she got a good glimpse of almost all the parts of the house, since it's just a box-type of house. She watched her student.

The female grade one student then took out four plates from their tiny kitchen and placed it on the small wooden table. She took out the small amount of food she gathered from her classmates' lunches and divided them among the four small plates. She then happily called her younger siblings who were playing on the floor and ushered them to their seats for their breakfast.

Then the student went to a sickly woman lying on a small wooden bed and talked to her, smiling. The woman smiled back to her then laid her head back again.

Upon watching the entire scenario, the teacher felt a painful lump in her heart and silent tears fell from her cheeks. She was greatly touched with what she saw. She went back to school anyway.

The next day, she visited her student in her house with a sack of rice. The student was so happy. Later did the teacher learned that her student didn't have a father anymore and that their mother was sick and couldn't work, that's why they didn't have food to eat. This left the grade one student, who is the eldest among her siblings looked for ways to feed her little brother and sisters and their sickly mother.

This led us into great realization of how lucky we are in life. We don't have the right to complain but to thank every gift we have, instead.