One evening, there were three guests sitting in a restaurant:
An old man, a young man, and me.

Due to the fact that there weren’t many guests, not all the lights were turned on.
Hence, it appeared a little dimmer. There I was, sitting at the corner beside a window.
That young man was having a plate of noodle with a seat near the door. The table next to his, was the old man.

I noticed that the young man wasn’t paying much attention to his noodle.
His eyes were focusing on a cell phone on the table right where the old man sat.

My observation was precise. When the old man turned around for a cigarette, that young man quickly took the phone, put it into his pocket and left.

When the old man turned back around and noticed his cell phone missing,
he shivered for a moment, stood up, and looked around.

At this very moment, the young man was about to open the door.
That old man understood everything and walked towards him.

I worried of the old man, thinking that it’s hard for him to face the young man at such age.
Out of expectation, that old man said “Wait for a moment young man.”
That young man turned around and asked “What is it?”

 “Oh, you see, yesterday was my 70^th birthday. My daughter gave me a cell phone as my birthday present.
I don’t like it that much, but since it’s a kind gift from her, I treasure it.
I put that phone on the table just now, but it went missing. I think it must have fallen onto the ground when I accidentally knocked the table.
And my poor eyes, I couldn’t see well, not to mention it’s hard for me to bend down to the ground. Could you please help me for a moment?”

The nervous look wasn’t on the young man’s face anymore.
He wiped the sweat off his head and replied “Alright then, I’ll look around for you.”

That young man bent down and looked around the table.
After another round, he retrieved the phone for the old man “Is it this one?”
The old man then held his hands tight and said “Oh! Thank you! You’re such a great young man!”

I was astonished to see what had just happened. After he left, I went over to the old man and said “You could have called the police since he’s the thief!”

That old man’s reply lingered for a long time in my mind.
He said “This method might have brought me back my phone, but in the same time, I’d lose something way more valuable. That way, I’d lose forgiveness.”

The world would be more beautiful place with forgiveness.

Forgiveness is a kind of wisdom and power. Not only it is a warming, and civilised state of life. To forgive others is just the same as forgiving ourselves. When we forgive someone, we’ll feel better. When our hearts are larger to put in more people, we could win them over either.

A philosopher once said “The sky could gather all the clouds, disregarding of their appearance, hence the sky is extraordinarily wide; a mountain could collect every piece of rock, no matter if it’s big or small, thus a mountain is great and strong; a sea could keep all the waves, no matter if it’s clear or milky, therefore a sea is enormous.” The philosopher’s words are certainly a way of distinguishing the most natural state of forgiveness.

There are lots of incidents that could make us feel helpless in life. There are also times when we’ll face people who are bad to us. However, if we never learn to forgive, we’ll plunged ourselves into infinite agony. On the other hand, if we could face little mistakes and a smile, an apology could have brought us forgiveness. If we could be strict to ourselves like what we’ve expected on others, forgive the others like the way we wished to be forgiven, it is also a kind of compassion. The sky and earth is enormously wide. But the thing that’s wider than them, are our hearts!

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