How did the thief know that someone was coming?
Directions: Read the passage given below carefully and choose the best answer to the question from the given alternatives.
Once there lived an old scholar in a village. He was a well-respected man in his region that had fallen on bad times after a terrible flood.
Late one night, a thief broke into his house and stealthily crept around the sleeping household. Suddenly, the thief heard a rustling sound. Someone was coming. He looked around for a place to hide himself, but the room had little furniture in it – there was nowhere to hide. In desperation he looked around again and this time he looked upwards, up to the roof beams.
With a running jump he scrambled up onto one of the roof beams. He pressed his body along the length of the pole, and stayed as still and quiet as he could – hardly breathing , not moving a muscle.
The door below opened, and in walked an old man. He took a few steps into the room and stopped. He seemed to be lost in thought as he waited near the door.
Then he called out to a servant to wake his sons. He then walked over to a chair in the middle of the room, sat down, and waited.
Soon, his three sleepy sons shuffled into the room.
“What’s wrong father?” asked the youngest son and yawned.
“I just wanted to ask you boys a question.” answered the wise old scholar.
The eldest son was surprised, “You woke us all up in the middle of the night because you wanted to ask us a question? Couldn’t it have waited till the morning?”
“It is an important question. Now sit down all of you. My question is: If a person does bad things, is he a bad person?”
The room was silent for a while.
Then, the middle son spoke. “I’ve heard of the phrase, ‘Hate the sin, but not the sinner’, I think that people can be good inside, but they get led astray or get driven to do bad things.”
He nodded and replied, ”Yes, I do think that man is born good. But sometimes, people get lax, and conveniently forget what the right thing to do is, and slowly they turn bad. It’s easier to be bad and much, much harder to be good, and do what is right all the time. It takes work and perseverance not to give in.
The old man told his sons about how important working and honesty were. “You must always strive to be honest, to people you know and also people you don’t know. What do YOU think sir?” The man looked directly up at the unwelcome visitor in the beam.
The thief was so surprised, he almost fell off. Regaining his balance, he slowly climbed down, trembling. When the sons saw the loot in the thief’s bag, they closed in on him, ready to punish him, but the old man stood between the thief and his sons.
“Hate the sin and not the sinner”, he repeated, then turned to the thief and to everyone’s surprise ordered his servant to give the man a bolt of silk.
Full of shock, shame and gratitude, the thief apologized sincerely.
The wise old scholar said, “I have faith in you to become good again. Use this cloth to start over, and live your life with dignity and a healthy amount of pride in yourself.” Then the wise old scholar led the man out of the front door.