The Parable of John and Jacob: Your life is worth more than your car.

I hope you will find this education based parable both informative and entertaining. It is loosely based on some events that happened to a few friends of mine.

John had a pretty good life. He'd been working for the same company for about 15 years now and his job was quite stable. He was a business analyst making about $65,000 a year.

Recently John bought a house in a nice neighborhood.

He was very pleased to be able to live in such a safe neighborhood.

"Well this is quite a step up from where I used to live." he thought to himself.

"I don't even need to lock my door at night."

Jacob used to have a good job too. He'd gotten laid off two years ago though.

These days he was taking odd jobs here and there to be able to put food on the table for his children. It had been getting cold lately and he knew his kids needed blankets.

Jacob knew there was a nice area down the street full of huge houses.

Sometimes, in better days, he would drive his kids through the area during the holidays so that they could look at all of the different decorations.

One night Jacob decided, against his better judgment, that he would take a nighttime trip through the neighborhood to see if he could find anything that he could sell.

John heard a noise that night. It was the noise of shattered glass.

"My new BMW is parked in the driveway." he thought quickly.

"Whoever is messing with my car is going to pay."

It seems that after work John had left a $20 bill on the dashboard. Jacob had no intention of hurting anybody but that $20 could go a long way towards helping him.

John screamed out at the strange man.

"I'm going to kill you!"

......but it seemed that John had it all wrong. Jacob was the one with the gun. As John ran toward him Jacob fired.

Neither man had any ill will towards the other. Sometimes tragedy is a result of circumstance.

What could John have done differently?

John became angry because somebody was messing with his car. He could have either called the police or just left things alone so that he could deal with his insurance company the next day.

He assumed that because of his position in life, and because of the safe neighborhood that he was living in, that he was bulletproof.

No one is bulletproof.

It's important to pay attention to your surroundings and act appropriately.

I hope that you, dear reader, can learn a lesson from this educational parable. There was no need for anyone to get hurt. This tragedy could have been prevented by paying attention to our surroundings, and understanding the dangers that exist around us.