The Monk And The Thief

There was once a very popular monk who gave Dhamma talks in a monastery regularly. Many Buddhist devotees attended his talks as they like his friendly personality and skillful delivering style of his speech.

Among those who always attended his talks was a thief. This guy would steal something from the monastery every once in a while. Each time he was caught, the monk would counsel him and then asked the other devotees to forgive him

This went for a while until one day the devotees got sick of this thief. One of the devotees on behalf of all the devotees gave an ultimatum to the monk. Either he expels the thief or the rest of the devotees would leave.

The monk answered, " Then all of you, please leave". He then explained to the shocked crowd. " All of you know that stealing is wrong, but he doesn't. If i don't teach him, who will ? This man needs my guidance more than any one of you. If i have to lose all of you to keep him, let this be the case".

The thief was so touched by this and started to cry. Since that day, he never stole again.