She was a lady from a high class of society and it was her first time traveling by train.
Along with her, she had her five-year-old daughter. She was used to comfort, she didn’t even understand why she ended up using the overcrowded train to travel.
There were so many people that you could hardly move from carriage to carriage to find the seat assigned on the ticket.
The lady squeezed the little girl’s hand tightly for fear of losing it in the crowd.
By the time the train left, a street vendor who had popcorn approached them and was trying to sell something.
He looked very poor and was wearing some old and torn clothes. The salesman handed her a bag of popcorn and said, Just one dollar ma’am.
The lady looked at her with disdain and asked her to leave, but the little girl pulled her hand away and said: Mom, please buy me one. The salesman was still standing with that bag of popcorn in his hand.
The lady saw all his anger and asked him to leave.
The seller did so, left. The little girl waved to the shopkeeper and smiled, the shopkeeper waved back and gave her a sincere smile.
Mom was very angry because of all the inconvenience she was going through on the overcrowded train ride, and moreover the daughter was nagging her to buy popcorn from a person far beyond her rank.
After some time, the train stops at the next station and when they were getting off, the little girl saw the salesman who was sitting on a station bench, very tired and most of all hopeless.
Apparently he couldn’t sell anything. The girl smiled at her and said to her mom: Mom, can we give you some alms, he looks hungry.
She refused to help him and tried to keep the girl away saying: Ignore him, he is not a good person.
People like him get married little girls and put them in the bag.
As soon as they left a little, they heard a voice calling them. When they turned their heads, they saw the salesman waving to them and walking towards them.
The lady thought he was some kind of troublemaker and started running, pulling the little girl and ignoring his calls from behind.
They arrived at the exit of the station and noticed that the salesman was still following them. She started walking even faster, crossed the street and got in front of a taxi.
They entered in the taxi in a hurry and told the taxi driver to leave quickly.
As soon as the driver was ready, there was a loud screech. A bad feeling ran through his whole body.
They turned their heads and saw the salesman lying on the asphalt with his hand up holding something in it.
Many people gathered, with a feeling of guilt deep inside her, she took the girl and went to him.
When they approached, the seller with great difficulty held out what he had in his hand and said: Madam, I’m sorry if I scared you, that was not my intention.
This bracelet fell to your daughter when you got off the train, and I wanted to give her this bag of popcorn.
She reminds me a lot of my daughter before she passed away from a serious illness.
The lady, very moved by this gesture, shakes his hand with both of her hands and says: Thank you very much, don’t beat yourself up, sir, you’ll be fine.
The doctors are coming. With difficulty, the shopkeeper said: It’s okay ma’am, I’m looking at my daughter. I don’t regret it what happened, I don’t even like the doctors.
I’m finally sick of living in this world where I can’t sell a single bag of popcorn. Having said these words, the seller passed away.
Someone from the crowd said: I knew the deserter, Joseph was a chief railway engineer, but after what happened to his daughter, he gave up and let life take him by the feet.
Every now and then he sold something small enough to earn something to eat. Lesson: We should not make any prejudgments about someone without knowing them first.
We should never judge someone based on their appearance alone.
