The Rich Young Ruler and People Who Steal Things

The rich young ruler thought he had it made because he was such a good boy. He never smoked or cursed and he looked after his old mum. But Jesus told him it wasn´t enough, he'd have to sell all his possessions and give them to the poor. The rich young ruler left, dejected because he was, as i said, rich.

Then he was on a bus last night from Nazca (where there are many lines, which he saw from a tall tower) to somwhere else in southern Peru and something happened which made him think. His bag was stolen. It contained his most valuable possession: A diamond emulate given to him as a dowery from his fiancee's family. The emulate was gone, along with his toothbrush and a set of postcards he bought of the many lines.

It was an odd set of events because in many ways it mirrored my recent experiences. My CD player got nicked last night from a bus. Some vague prophetic arrogance prompts me to believe i saw it coming (or going). It makes you feel a bit weird when something of yours is now someone elses and you know they don't care half as much about it as you did. It was my most valuable possession, given to me by Lucia.

It does, really helpfully make you think about the value of stuff. I told the police. They were very nice about it all. Easy come easy go. Life lesson is that you have to forgive people a lot for stealing from you. Banks, ATM machine's, Taxi drivers, Bus conductors, they all take their little share. But if you don't forgive them you go crazy and get really annoyed at beggars.