A Broken Promise

A young man has accidentally hit a car in front of him after he had reckless driving behaviour.

He immediately ran out of his car, to see the condition of the casualty rooted from his lame slapdash.

An old man with a warm fatherly-looked, had this bleeding at his forehead, and he is motionless. He seems to be engulfed by this accident, speechless not due to the pain, but probably traumatized.

His car was in a severe dented, bumper fell off, car plate broken into 2 pieces.

Looking at the victim, made this young man embraced by guiltiness and apologetic.

To console this old man, he came to him and said “ Pakcik, kita settle kes ni kat sini je ye? Nanti saya ganti semua kerosakan kereta pakcik, bawa pakcik ke hospital, saya akan tanggung semua nya, SAYA JANJI! Kalau pakcik setuju, kita janji settle kat sini je, ye ?”

Which literally means…
“Uncle, could we solve and settle this case here? I will bear all the cost for your car, and the medical expenses. I PROMISE! If you agree with this, then we settle it here, ok?”

The old man nodded his head, agreed. They both later went to the clinic and sent the car to workshop for repair. As what the young had promised, he paid all the car bills and medicine cost.

The old man went back home, and told his family the bad day he went through. Coincidentally, his son is a policeman. Knowing his dad knocked by a young man, he was angry, furiously say “ Ayah, mana boleh macam tu! Buat report polis lah!” ( Dad, it can’t be like this! Just lodge a police report- against him!”

This old man blindly followed what the son has commanded him.

Upon receiving a compound from policeman, this young man met this old man, and confronted him.
He said “ Pakcik, sekarang pakcik dah buat report kat polis, saya pun dah dapat surat kompaun, TAPI tak apa, saya tetap akan bayar. Cuma saya terkilan, kenapa pakcik tak tunaikan janji? Saya dah tunaikan janji saya, tapi pacik dah mungkirkan janji…”
(In summary, this young man expressed his disappointment toward this old man, for not keeping his promise to close the car accident case, and tell the old man that he will somehow proceed with the compound payment.)

After a couple months later, a weird disease attacked this old man. He has all this rashes around his mouth, hand and body. He went to see many doctors, but none of the medicine can cure him.

He later realized and feel that, this is probably some kind of punishment he ought to receive upon his stupidity in not KEEPING his PROMISE and being plainly unfair.
He has been searching for this young man, seeking for forgiveness, but SURPRISINGLY the young man had gone…

This is a real life-story shared by my elder brother.
Well, it is not that I have to necessarily believe that this is the punishment he received for not making his promise.
We never know, and no one knows. It may have been a great coincident that he got this illness right at the point where he fully feel regret for lodging police report against this guy, subsequently made a conclusion that this is the punishment for not keeping his promise.
I don't conclude here and fully swallow the fact that this old man having the disease for his misbehaviour. i don't know...

This story is simple, somehow it has deeply touches me, in a way that, it make me realize, that I sometimes being neglectful, forgetful and ungrateful for what I have in hand.
Most importantly, this real life-story reminds me to not break any PROMISE.