Once upon a time, a mother and a son lived in a village. The son was very naughty, always making his mother very angry with him.
One day, he started to do something very wrong – he stole from his friends. He went back home and said to his mother,
“Mum! I’d like to show you something which is very amazing. See!”
He put a book out of his school bag and put it on the table. He was so proud of what he had done. Yet, his mum looked confused, “Where is the book from?”
“Oh! Mum! It was of course not mine! I took it from my partner’s school bag. He didn’t know at all. Haha!”
His mother felt very angry and said loudly,
“What? You stole things from your classmate? What do you think? Do you think that I’ll be proud of you? I feel so disappointed! Now, I must punish you. Stand outside of the house for one whole night to reflect on your own self!!”
He stood outside of the house. However, after one minute, his mum started to worry about him, “Will he be sad? Will he be cold? Will he think I am bad?”
After ten minutes, his mother took him back home. In fact, the son didn’t know what mistakes he had made.
From that time on, every time when he stole something from others, he would not show to his mum and if his mum found him doing something wrong, he would not be scared anymore because he knew that his mum would not punish him.
Then one time he wanted to steal jewellery from a shop. He was not successful that time. People saw him stealing the jewels and they called the police. At last, he was sent to prison. His mum was very sad about him and regretted why she didn’t stop him at the first time of his wrongdoing.
Was she a kind mother or not? The story reminds me of the saying, “You’ve got to be cruel to be kind!”