21 text messages later...

In China on Sunday, a man returned $630 and a cell phone that he had stolen from a woman after she sent him 21 gentle text messages. It sounds pretty crazy, but here's the story:

Pan, a schoolteacher, had her purse stolen this Friday as she was cycling home. Rather than calling the police, Pan sent him a text message using a friend's phone. "I'm Pan Aiying, a teacher from Wutou Middle School. You must be going through a difficult time. If so, I will not blame you." She got no response to that message, but she sent another message telling the thief to "keep the 4,900 yuan if you really need it, but please return the other things to me. You are still young. To err is human. Correcting your mistakes is more important than anything." Nineteen text messages later, she had all but given up. But then Sunday morning she found a package in front of her door containing her purse and everything in it. In the package there was a note, which read, "dear Pan: I'm sorry. I made a mistake. Please forgive me. You are so tolerant even though I stole from you. I'll correct my ways and be an upright person."

Pretty heartwarming, neh? I guess I'm in one of those feel-good moods lately. Here's the original news story in case you're interested.

(yeah, that image has very little to do with the story. ring ring ring ring ring ring ring bananaphone!)