The Sentence

THE SENTENCE

CHILDREN'S STORIES 

The judge finally came into the crowded courtroom. Everyone stood up as he entered as a sign of respect for authority. The room was full of anxious faces. The parents of the boys were all present. There had been silence before the judge entered the courtroom but now it was so silent you could have heard pin drop. None of the boys friends were present. Apart from the parents and some brothers and sisters, the rest of the pews in the congregation were filled by busy bodies, newspaper reporters and people who generally liked to hear the punishment given to criminals.

 

This case was an interesting because the boys were quite young. If they had paid attention in school, they would still in primary school. The judge looked serious, but under that seriousness you could see a deep sadness. He did not want to send the boys to jail, but he had to do his job to protect good people from bad people.

 

As he was about to read out the punishment he turned to the boys and said "boys, I don't know why you did what you did. I am not sure that you are even sorry, please help me to understand how you came to be thieves at such a young age. I cant understand how such young people can be so bad and deliberately want to spoil their future".

 

The first boy, who was already in handcuffs stood up and said " I was not a thief until I was caught. If the police had not caught me I would not have been a thief." "Really!?" asked the judge " do you want to tell me that you only consider yourself a thief because you were caught?" "yes" said the boy " my mother always warned me that police catch thieves who steal and send them to jail. I have never been caught before. If I had not been caught this time, I would not be in so much trouble". "what about your future?" asked the judge "well my father has taken care of that. He is rich". "So why do you steal?" "for fun" said the boy. "You mean you steal for fun!" At that the judge turned to the next boy.

 

"Dear boy you are younger than my youngest child, why do you steal?" the boy answered I don't have as much as my friend. I have no family and live off the street. Nobody will help me, so I steal to get food." "Do you like stealing"  "No" said the boy. "But I don't like people feeling good when I am sad". "Why do you steal with your friend here. His father is rich and all he is doing is causing his family embarrassment" " He has good ideas, but he is stupid to steal, but that is his problem" said the second boy.

 

The judge turned to the third boy and said and so why do you steal? " the boy said "I don't have anything to do and stealing keeps me busy." "you steal to keep you busy? "yes" said the boy. "I have a home but it so boring I cant live there anymore." "would you like to go home" asked the judge? "the jail is more of my home" but someone once told me that a thief has forty days. I will stop stealing when I reach thirty nine." "And how will you know you have reached thirty nine" asked the judge? "Well I keep count" said the boy, "and I think I am about at about number thirty-six".

 

The Judge thought to himself for a moment and then said. " you are right; a thief has only forty days. But the forty days are not counted in the way you think. The forty days are counted backwards from your future. Every time you steal, your life is cut short by one important day. That day, is in fact your birthday. The more you steal the more birthdays you loose. The less you will live. This day is an important day. The crimes you have committed have robbed you of all your remaining birthdays. You are sentenced to life in prison.

 

 

Allan Bukusi, 2007