A story was once told of two men in a certain community. The first man was trusted and respected because of his integrity. The second man was saved from the justice of the children who had stalked him for stealing.
In this community, stealing was abhorred – no thief was tolerated. Stealing was a sacrilegious act against mother earth and the social order. It is considered an economic travesty. Judgment for a convicted thief was stoning. Stoning could result in fatality and fatality that was not considered to be outside of the consequence of the judgment. It was administered immediately, especially when one was caught in the very act.
No thief should live successfully live in the land was usually one of the prayer mantras of the elders when they poured libations. No thief, in any land, should live to enjoy his ill-gotten wealth, others admonished. We should sleep with our two eyes closed because we had not forcefully or in beguile taken what is not ours. So it is the responsibility of the elders to severally and collectively maintain, teach and enforce this code.
On this fateful day, an old man stole a fowl from a neighborhood. He placed the fowl in his bag. Unfortunately for him, children were playing in that neighborhood who had seen him commit that heinous crime. They had all been taught that stealing of any form was condemnable and must be reported. So as the thief hurried from the scene of his theft. The kids chased him up and chanted that he was a thief – that he had stolen a fowl and that the fowl was in his bag. He attempted to persuade them that it was his fowl but they were not convinced. He tried to hush them up but they resisted more and raised their voices more. They hoped that somehow an elder, any elder, would hear them so that judgment is pronounced on the thief. They had their stones already in their hands to mete out punishment to that old thief.
At the crossroads leading up to the village square, there was this good old man – an honorable man whose words are believed, whose character has been proven to be beyond reproach. The community, at large had relied on him for his good judgment. At his sight, the children were elated that eventually necessary and commensurate justice shall be served on the old thief. On the other hand, the old thief realized he had no chance before this good elder.
When the good old man approached, he inquired about what the commotion was all about. He asked why the kids were chasing up after an elderly man. The thieving old man mustered the courage to speak up and addressed the good old man thus;
“My fellow old man, these children accused me of stealing a fowl and that the fowl was in my bag. Could you please use your elder’s eye to look into my bag and see whether there was a fowl in the bag or not”
When the good old man had finished looking into the bag, he addressed the children thus;
“My good children, I have looked into his bag and found no fowl in it. Drop your stones, please. You might please go home now to your parents”.
Perplexed, the children dispersed.
There had been questions going on in my mind regarding this folklore once I had gone through some introductory notes on Business Ethics.
• Was the good old man compromised or in what way might he have been correct not to have pronounced the expected judgment?
• What was the value of saving the thief when he had a responsibility to purge the land of such misfits? Was he right to seem to have set aside the regulation of the land?
• How about justice for the owner of the fowl? Might the good old man have made the thief return the fowl?
• Did the good old man act ethically? Did he deliver the greatest good to the greatest number of people?
• What about if the old thief returns to steal even bigger things?
#MEMBA11
