Thou shalt not steal
HELLO, MI neighbour! If through covetousness you seek to find pleasure, you could end up helping yourself to what does not belong to you and then become the primary cause of your own suffering or untimely demise. Rank stupidity.
More than a mouthful, but that’s just a round-about way of saying “thou shalt not steal”. Thieving may bring exciting but temporary pleasure that cannot compensate for the pain and misery that follow. Will we never learn?
A recent incident in Jamaica brings to mind a similar incident which occurred in Pendleton, United States on February 14, 2014: “Two men were taken into custody after the stolen car they were driving crashed into the back of a garbage truck in Pendleton. Both men and the driver of the truck were uninjured. The men were charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property. A Webb Street man had reported the 2004 Chevrolet Cavalier missing on Thursday morning. The victim said the car had been taken sometime between 3:00 and 6:00 a.m.”
Approximately three years later: “at 6:48 a.m. Sunday, May 21, 2017, a man is dead and another in hospital following a two-vehicle crash this morning on Spanish Town Road near to the Riverton City disposal site. The police report that shortly before 6 a.m., the driver of a Toyota Axio motor car, which was earlier stolen, was heading towards Six Miles. It’s reported that the car slammed into the back of a garbage truck and overturned. The driver sustained injuries and died at the scene.
“The truck driver was taken to the hospital. The man who has not been identified appeared to be in his midtwenties. The car was actually stolen from Pembroke Hall. The lady just bought the car on Friday. The deceased, who was in the car, was making his escape along with stolen items when he had this collision with the garbage truck. The garbage truck eventually overturned.”
INSULT TO INJURY
One possible message from the above incidents: thou shalt not steal motor vehicles from Pembroke Hall, Jamaica or Pendleton, USA, for thou shalt surely crash into the back of garbage trucks! And I dare say that to crash into a regular motor vehicle is one thing, but to crash into the back of a garbage truck is certainly adding insult to injury!
Though understandably incensed, the pain and misery experienced by the relatives of the deceased should evoke an emotional response in all of us, which helps to cushion their blow. Yes, the young man was a thief, but his mother could still be seeing him as that bouncing baby boy she brought into the world (through pain) over 20 years ago. Hush, Mother. oftentimes, whenever our children make the wrong choices, they do not receive wrong punishment.
For the rest of us, let’s remember not to covet our neighbour’s goods, our neighbour’s house, our neighbour’s motor vehicle, our neighbour’s spouse, our neighbour’s job, our neighbour’s wealth, etc. To do so is to try to steal them. To disobey the injunction: thou shalt not steal, is to cause destruction on oneself. If you must covet, covet this: thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.