This is a story of a boy named Jim. When he was 14 years old he had made some friends in school but they turned out to be bad company. They were part of a gang who steals bicycles and resells them.
Whenever they were stealing a bike, a boy named John would smash the lock or chain with a hammer while two other boys were on the look out. Then one of them would bring the bicycle to a cave on Bukit Timah Hill.
The next day, they would meet in the cave, repaint the bicycle and we would change the accessories ... take off a basket or add a lamp. When they had stolen four or five bicycles, they would smuggle the bicycles into Malaysia and sell them for a few hundred dollars.
One bright Sunday afternoon, they went to an apartment in Bukit Batok to steal a bike. They found a bicycle on the landing of the fifth floor and started to work on the lock. The lock was hard to break ... it took 10 whole minutes to break it. As they were about to escape with the bike, the owner of the bicycle suddenly came out of the elevator. "My bike!" he shouted.
They dropped the bike and ran down the stairs but two policemen who were near-by caught them. They were handcuffed!
They were brought to the police station. Their parents were called and their teachers were told what had happened. The police at the station lectured them. The police took down their personal particulars and were all allowed to go home. At home, jim was scolded and grounded for what he had done. Jim was also caned by the school principal and was sent to the Boys' Home for six months.
Note: The Boys' Home is a short-term shelter for teenage boys in times of crisis, such as family conflict, physical and sexual abuse, peer pressure and bullying. It offers a residential stay within a disciplined environment to help boys overcome their problems.
Life in the Boys' Home was very hard but jim learnt a very important lesson. Jim learnt that stealing was not right. At the Boys' Home, the officers counselled jim and encouraged him to change his ways. Jim decided to stop stealing.
To this day, jim regrets what he had done. I hope you will learn from jim's story and not take the same path, which jim took.
