“Ouch! Stop pulling my hair, let go! You can have the lunchbox, please let go,” Adil said as Umar, another boy, snatched his lunch.

It was recess time in the school, my friend Adil was weeping loudly. He had constantly been bullied by Umar, who was big while Adil was a small, timid boy.

Umar would frequently snatch Adil’s lunch, it was becoming an everyday problem because if Adil wasn’t there, Umar would look for some other timid fellow. Adil told me that he remained hungry and could do nothing about this. I asked him why he didn’t tell this to the teacher.

“I can’t because Umar has said he’ll beat me if I ever tell my teachers or parents. See the bruise on my cheek? He pushed me hard against the tree the other day, and I hit the trunk!”

I was thinking for a plan, a plan to stop all this. The next day, I brought some extra hot, spicy ketchup and put even more chilly in it. At break time, I insisted that Adil should put all the hot sauce into the burger he had brought. As usual Umar came and snatched Adil’s lunchbox and emptied the contents into his mouth.

No sooner had he done this that he let out a shrill scream and ran to the nearest drinking water cooler. After taking a few gulps he came back and hit Adil hard and snatched my lunchbox.

This was too much, I decided to go to the headmaster the next day and tell him about this. The next morning when I arrived at school, I saw Umar already weeping in the corridor. I went to him and asked why was he crying?

At first, he didn’t tell me then upon insisting he disclosed that yesterday while snatching the lunch boxes, another student had seen him do that and that boy had gone straight to the teacher and reported the matter. As punishment, he was standing out in the corridor and the teacher had said that she would tell the headmaster. He would be suspended unless we forgave him.

I agreed to forgive but asked him to tell me why he snatches others’ lunch. He told me that he wakes up late so he rushes for school without having breakfast and taking lunch.

So we forgive him but then asked him to wake up early if he wanted to spend a respectable life and didn’t want to be suspended from the school; and besides we would be friends with him. Umar happily agreed, so from then on he did not snatch anyone’s lunch and became our friend.