Bullying
One day a bus driver was driving his regular route. Usually, the bus driver never had any problem with his passengers, but this day will be different and change his life forever. At the first couple of stops everything was, as usual, a few people got on, and a few got off. At one of the last stops, however, a big hulk of a guy got on. Six feet eight, built like a wrestler, arms hanging down to the ground. He glared at the driver and said, “Big John doesn’t need to pay!” and sat down at the back. The driver was so shocked that he just sat there speechless and intimidated
The bus driver was only five feet three, thin, and without any self-defense skills. He knew it wasn’t smart to argue with Big John, but he also wasn’t happy about the whole situation. The next day the same thing happened. Big John got on again, made a show of refusing to pay, and sat down. And the next day, and the one after that. This really bothered the bus driver, who started losing sleep over the way Big John was taking advantage of him. Finally, he couldn’t stand it any longer. He decided to stand up to this bully, so he signed up for body building courses, karate, judo, and all that good stuff. While training the bus driver told everyone what has happened to him, how unfair everything was, and how he was going to keep practicing so one day, he could stand up to that bully.
After almost a year of hard training in the gym and at different martial art studios, the bus driver had become quite strong and he felt really good about himself. So he decided that the next day Big John tries to pull his trick he will confront him. The day finally came when Big John once again got on the bus and said, “Big John doesn’t pay!” But this time the driver stood up, glared back at the passenger, and screamed, “And why not? With a surprised look on his face, Big John replied, “Big John has a bus pass, so like Big John said many times… Big John doesn’t pay.” The bus driver apologized to Big John for screaming at him sat down and took a couple of minutes to think over what he had put himself through over the past year and how all of it could have been avoided if he would have just asked Big John the very first day why he doesn’t have to pay. At the end of the day when the bus driver got back to the martial art studio, his mentor asked him, “So did you stand up to the bully this time?” The bus driver told his mentor what had happened and how wrong he was from the start. His mentor calmly said, “Sometimes there is no bad guy only miscommunication.”
Moral: If you find yourself in a confrontation make sure that you know all the facts before you start making some big revenge plans.