Many adults would have pulled straight. A seven-year-old boy decided to stop.
Benicio Hoffmann was cycling in his neighborhood, in Curitiba, Brazil, when he lost control of the vehicle and ended up against a car parked.
For a child of his age it would have been easy to walk away, afraid and convinced that no one noticed.
He did the exact opposite.
After unsuccessfully searching for the car owner, he wrote with his calligraphy a message:
"Good morning. I hit you. I fell with my bike. I'll leave you my father's phone number. »
He folded the leaflet and left it under the car wiper.
Then he returned home.
When the car owner, Marcelo Castilhos Martins, found that note, he was surprised. He had not even noticed the small damage, but those few lines enough to hit it much more than any scratch on the body.
He decided not to seek compensation.
Benicio's father, Marcel Weiss Hoffmann, told that his son could not rest until he found a way to take responsibility for what had happened.
In a world where you often look for an excuse or someone to download their responsibilities, a child of just seven years has given a simple but precious lesson.
Honesty does not depend on age.
It depends on the choices you make when no one compels us to do the right thing.