The local police spokesman said in a TV interview that the case belonged to the dumb criminal files. Brianna Priddy, a waitress in Lakewood Colorado, had lost her wallet on a night out with friends. The wallet contained, among other things, her cash, credit cards and driver’s license. She quickly took precautions with her bank even as she learnt that checks were already being issued in her name. She would nonetheless take everything in stride and move on; life was said to be made of such — ups and downs. Two weeks passed and, on a regular work evening, she resumed the routine at her restaurant and took orders from a group of four customers whose ages she needed to verify. As they must all show their IDs, a woman in the group presented the waitress’s stolen driver’s license. Without panic and no outward show of surprise, the waitress handed back the ID with a professional serving smile, saying she would be right back with the ordered margarita. She called the police.
The masquerading woman was arrested on suspicion of theft, identify theft and criminal impersonation. It was later revealed that she was 26 years of age and could easily have given her ID rather than pretend to be someone else. And thus ‘Dumb!’ was what readily came to mind. ‘Dumb’ was also the word used to describe a burglar who once upon intruding his victim’s house, found a web page opened on a desktop in the living room. He couldn’t resist the urge to quickly browse through the latest entries on his Facebook homepage but incidentally omitted to log out before slithering away from the scene. He was apprehended.
When a thief is described as dumb, the sensing is understandably that of bewilderment at how he or she could not have been much smarter to easily get away with the crime. The description, however, embodies an inherent sentiment of sympathy for the criminal that gets arrested rather than relief for the victim whose sufferings might end. The victim is very quickly forgotten and people are more closely drawn to the criminal like the indefinable pull of true kinship. The criminal that is caught is however not dumb but rather lucky at the turn of event and by the chain reactions that may lead to his rehabilitation or, most importantly, enable him to overcome himself. When we gnash our teeth at how a thief could be so dumb as not to get away with a tantalizing steal, we reveal that the thief is merely the ultimate outlet and release of our hidden sentiments in a link that binds our common humanity. We give our true selves away in the offhand comments that are meant to draw passing laughter and quickly forgotten. This reveals the truth in the enlightenment that the thoughts we secretly harbour within often bear their consequences without; it does not matter whether or not we deliberately give expressions to them.
We now know that any thought that is welled up within a man automatically takes on an invisible form that is linked to, feed and nurtured by all similar thoughts generated in every human being on earth. It does not matter whether or not such a thought is given any verbal or physical expression, the form is continually sustained and strengthened by allied thoughts from the originator and anyone. This invisible thought-form alimented from every corner of the world becomes heavy to a point of condensation and like rain, must fall. The falling process could be the heightening of the tendency for action in anyone who may carry a related inclination until an outlet is offered for release or outburst. One can easily imagine the outpouring of all things good and uplifting upon the environment in case of a release from positive energy centres. Correspondingly, where such thoughts are negative, havoc is ultimately unleashed through a human outlet. The public face of such havoc may be an individual human being, but the invisible thought-forms that constitute the power centre propelling the release of the havoc are often linked to virtually everyone in the society.
It is in this light that one may better understand Gibran Khalil Gibran when he says in The Prophet: “… the condemned is the burden-bearer for the guiltless and unblamed. … a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree.” A man who is outwardly irreproachable by society’s standards, but who merely fantasises in his thoughts about the physical desirability of a woman passing by may, in his thought volition, unwittingly contribute to a rape that is perpetrated by another man in another part of the world. Another person who in a fit of rage wishes he had a gun to blast off the head of one who enrages him may just have provided the final push to the murderous thought-forms looking for expression through a waiting murderer.
The pressure of material needs and financial inadequacies which may exacerbate the craving in anyone for money at all costs, would nourish the invisible power centres that may drive thieves to steal, burglars to burgle and robbers to rob. And so it is with all vices, the man that is found guilty and condemned is but the mirror image of something we all carry within secretly or subconsciously. When the evil forms shrivel and dry, no longer nourished by related thoughts of people throughout the world, the would-be criminal, tempered by the noble and good, might find no more compulsion to commit a crime. It is obvious therefore that true redemption and how we make the world without depends from the start on the thoughts we carry within.
