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Moral Persuasion

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oaktree

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A colleague from India was in a foreign city for a few months, on assignment. He grew up in a tiny village, and though he is a programmer, he is not much of a "man of the world".

One evening, he was walking through a "bad" part of town in this foreign city. A group of 18 year olds gathered on a street corner called out to him, calling him "Bin Laden".

He did not avoid the situation. Not that he was being brave. He actually did not understand the risks. Instead of walking away, he crossed the street and went up to young thugs. He explained that just because he looked like Bin Laden, that did not mean that he supported Bin Laden. He explained that Bin Laden was an evil man.

One young man, who seemed to be the leader of the group asked him where he was from. "How come you're here?" "What work do you do?" To make a long story short, he ended up going to dinner with the young man (fast food) and "hanging out" for a couple of hours, telling him about India and just chatting.

The odd thing is that even after the whole episode, he still did not think that he had done anything out of the ordinary. He only told us about this many weeks later.

I remember one of the local guys being stunned and saying: "Didn't anybody tell you not to go down that street?" One of the girls, wide-eyed, exclaimed: "You are my hero".

One sees scenes like this in movies, a little more dramatic perhaps, and not executed so naively, but with the same message.

But... what is the message? What is the lesson? That thugs are soft inside? That they will respond well if you treat them right? Evidence that we need more multi-culturalism?

Or, is this just the case of an ignorant guy who did the wrong thing and just happened to get away with it?

Any similar stories?

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