The useful thief

By 5am, a man had been caught sneaking into someone’s house to steal. People in the area rushed out of their homes, armed with sticks, stones, and anything they could grab. They dragged the thief out into the open and noticed his leg was crippled, but no one cared about that. In the town I stayed, the law was simple, any thief caught before sunrise faced a harsh punishment. Many times, that meant being beaten to death or even burnt alive.

The crowd wasted no time. They started hitting him, raining blows from all directions. As they began discussing how to burn him, a man stepped out from the back of the crowd, shouting for them to stop. He begged the crowd to let the thief go, saying it wasn’t right to kill him, especially in his condition. But nobody listened. The people were too angry, and they were already preparing to light the fire.

Desperate, the man made a bold offer to pay them ₦50,000 for the damages caused by the thief. That got everyone’s attention. ₦50,000 was no small money, and slowly the crowd began to calm down. After some discussions, they agreed. The man handed over the money, and the thief, badly beaten but still alive, was set free.

Word later spread that the man who intervened was the thief's older brother. He had been living in another town for some time and had only recently returned. He couldn’t stand by and watch his younger brother get killed in such a brutal way. Family is family, no matter the shame or situation. He did what he had to do to protect his own.

Today, that same thief owns two estates and has become a respected man in the community. I still imagine how things could have gone differently if his life had ended that morning.