One night, as Diaz stepped off the train and onto a nearly empty platform, a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife. "He wanted my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, "Here you go "" Diaz says. As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, "Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you"re going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm." The robber looked at him puzzled, saying, "Why are you doing this?" Diaz replied, "If you"re willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me….." Diaz says he and the teen went into a diner and sat in a booth. "The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, the waiters come by to say hi," Diaz says. The kid said, "You know everybody here. Do you own this place?" "No, I just eat here a lot," Dias said. "But you"re even nice to the dishwasher," he said. Diaz replied, "Well, haven"t you been taught you should be nice to everybody?" "Yea, but I didn"t think people actually behaved that way," the teen said. When the bill arrived, Diaz said, "You"re going to have to pay for this bill because you have my money and I can"t pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I"ll gladly treat you." The teen returned it immediately. "I gave him $20…I figure maybe it"ll help him." Diaz says he asked for something in return- the teen"s knife-"and he gave it to me." Afterwards, when Diaz told his mother what happened, she said, "You"re the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch." "I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It"s as simple as it gets in this complicated world." |