The tendency to commit crime

Linh stopped his motorbike at a thatched roadside stall to get a drink; it was really hot now. Luckily, even on this steep, deserted mountain road there was a simple thatched stall with a full range of drinks on display. The owner smiled, asked kindly after him and chopped open a chilled coconut for Linh to drink. His thirst eased and his head clear, Linh looked around, observing out of professional habit, and asked:

• Hello, sir. Where is your home that you've come out to set up a refreshment stall on this mountain road? I've been travelling from the town for hours without seeing a single passer-by. Customers must be very rare, yet you have all kinds of drinks, chilled ones, even ice cubes. Does your income cover your living costs? How many people are in your family, and do they work?...
  The owner smiled and said:
• If you question like that, young man, how can a suspect keep up with the answers?
• Hey, how do you know I'm a police investigator? Linh asked, startled, as his hand moved to touch his holster.
  The owner smiled and said:
• It's not hard. In this remote back of beyond, there's no one whose face I don't know. The day before yesterday a rape and murder happened up in the village, and the culprits were minors. When you show up today, I don't need to ask to know who you are.
  Linh breathed out and took his hand off the holster, saying:
• Then do you know where the little brats fled to after the crime?
  The owner smiled and said:
• I don't even need to be asked. They fled across the border, because they have relatives over there and our authorities find it hard to cross and search for them.
• Then, in your view, how should we catch them?
• There's no need to think about that either. Their parents will surely cross secretly to visit and give them spending money. We just disguise ourselves, follow them, and seize the chance to catch them off guard and bring them back.

Linh looked at the owner in surprise and asked:

• What did you do before, sir, that you're so skilled in this line of work?
• Oh, I used to teach in a village school, so I picked up a little knowledge.
• Sir, these days the age of perpetrators of serious crimes is getting younger, which is very worrying. Children of only thirteen or fourteen already know how to rape and murder. We are at a loss, and the courts and the prosecutors are in great distress. The reformatories are in great difficulty too, not knowing how to reform them. Do you have any thoughts?
• Whether a person's morality is high or low, good or bad, there is always a deep cause. Until we find this cause, dealing with the branches is futile. If you deal with criminals a lot, you will see one thing clearly about the criminal mind: they commit their crimes very naturally.
  A man who rapes a woman out of a passing desire and then kills her to silence her also justifies himself, saying it was necessary. Or an old man who sexually abuses children also feels it is perfectly natural, that he had the chance at the time and so had to do it. Or a robber who breaks in armed, seizes property and kills the householder defends himself too, saying that is how life is.
  Some show a little remorse when sentenced by the court, but others are stony and show no emotion at all.
  It is all because the TENDENCY TO COMMIT CRIME has been established very deep in the mind, to the point where they commit crimes as naturally as eating, drinking and breathing.
  If we want to reform them, or to prevent countless other children from forming a TENDENCY TO COMMIT CRIME, we must know its deep origin.
  The TENDENCY TO COMMIT CRIME gradually forms in the depths of the inner mind when a child has views pumped into their head that look down on others or insult those who deserve respect. Parents may do this without meaning to when they disparage someone in front of the child. Friends may do this when they mock someone in front of the child. Disreputable social media sites may attack respected figures of history or of today whom a child happens to read about. Evil forces send people everywhere to attack the government, though within any government there are still many people who devote themselves wholeheartedly to the people and the country. Once children take in insults to those who deserve respect, a TENDENCY TO COMMIT CRIME appears in their minds at once. This psychological law is hard to understand, but it is true.
  To prevent a child forming a TENDENCY TO COMMIT CRIME, or to remove a tendency to commit crime lying dormant in the mind of a child (and of an adult too), we must help the child develop respect, reverence and devotion towards those in life who deserve respect. We must tell many good stories about the lives of heroes, saints, great leaders, and renowned figures of our nation and the world. We must tell them so that the child is moved, impressed and remembers them always. Then we invite the child to do something regularly all year round to express that reverence.
  Reverence for those in life who deserve respect is a kind of MERIT that prevents the formation of a TENDENCY TO COMMIT CRIME. That is where the secret lies.

Linh stared at the owner, stunned that in this deserted wilderness there should be so profound a sage.

When Linh said goodbye, the man also gave him a spare can of petrol, saying that Linh's bike did not have enough fuel to go and come back. Linh went to the village to work with the local authorities and then took his leave, asking in passing about the owner of the roadside stall. No one knew of any thatched stall on the mountain road, and no one knew of a teacher selling drinks by the roadside.
Linh rode back slowly, but when he reached the town he could not find the thatched stall he had seen that morning anywhere. 🏕

Sex offenders are getting younger, which is very worrying. We assume the children know nothing, never imagining that the "children" have known everything since primary school. Parents think their child is still young and so there is no hurry to talk about sex education, until the police arrive at their door to read out an arrest warrant for rape.
In truth, parents must face the fact that knowledge of sex creeps in to children very early, earlier than we think. The knowledge that creeps in to children is informal, so it is all disreputable knowledge that incites harmful curiosity.
Parents today must resolve to teach their children about sex themselves from a very early age, and to teach it from the viewpoint of the ancients, which will be safer for children. Men and women should keep their distance; chastity is worth a thousand pieces of gold; do not offend a girl before you are formally husband and wife; improper sex lowers a person's worth... and many more.