Thieves

On Saturday I went to the gym to do a workout. As per usual I finished, went to the dressing room and had a shower. I then proceeded to take my body oil out of my locker and place my clothing on the bench with my sneakers on the floor. I turned to rub the oil on my freshly showered torso and then proceeded to dress. Much to my horror, in that short space of time, someone had stolen my sneakers!

I was astounded. Firstly that someone had the gall to do it when there were people in the dressing room and secondly to do it while I was standing there not paying attention. To make things worse, I had to leave the gym barefoot as I had no shoes with me besides my sneakers, and that was the worst part over. When I got to my car I realized that they were my new sneakers, purchased just 2 days previously, and that I would now have to lay out R600 again for a new pair. It astounds me that people can do something like this. They can afford to pay for a monthly membership fee at Virgin Active, and then walk away with others belongings.

What goes around comes around is a saying my mother would say from time to time. She would encourage us to be good and kind to others as it would be repaid 10 fold. I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine who says that she wants to challenge her god about this theory. She constantly does good, considers others, goes out of her way to help and yet all she feels is that she is faced with further turmoil and hardship. Where is the justice? Does she stop doing good because she is not receiving the 10 fold? I don’t believe she does it to receive the rewards as she is not a selfish person; however all she wants is to continue doing good and have a little less turmoil and hardship in her life. Is that too much to ask?

Another friend recently had a discussion with a Hari Krishna follower and interesting enough told me that the discussion was about learning your lesson – or else you would have to return to face it again and again time after time, life after life. This is one of those days when I question; what am I supposed to learn from having things stolen from under my nose? Am I supposed to become so untrustworthy of everyone so as not to leave anything out of my sight at all times. Can anyone actually do that and live like that? Would we not be a bunch of neurotic people walking around? Or perhaps the lesson is that my shoes needed to be stolen to help someone else out that perhaps doesn’t have shoes? Perhaps this is one of those lessons that I will have to repeat time and time again as I cannot for the life of me, understand what lesson there is to be learnt.

I suppose I don’t understand thieves and there are many who are not only thieves of material things. People steal ideas, people steal others love, and some steal other lives. But it does however leave me wondering if I had not jumped to too quick a conclusion about my sneakers being stolen. What if they were mistakenly placed in some ones bag in a moment of mind lapse? Would they return the sneakers, or not, because of the embarrassment that they might be caused and what will I feel like if it does happen to be like this?

Im not sure what to say right now in that regard as I feel they were stolen and not mistakenly taken, but I suppose I need to leave some benefit of doubt, before cursing the thief. If it was mistakenly taken I should get them back tomorrow, but if not, is it possible for me to ask to see what revenge will be placed on the thief in his next life?

Then again – what goes around comes around, and should I want to see revenge in the first place? I think not!
But it still doesn’t change the fact that my sneakers are gone!