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With the loss of great personalities like the Late Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Florence Nightingale and mother Teresa who were the greatest symbol of the word ‘humanity’ our world is going into a total different era. Humanity is marked by compassion, kindness sympathy or consideration for humans or animals without being malicious. Being humane has sadly and is slowly disappearing from the face of earth. Lust, war, crime, betrayal and violence are gradually taking over the universe while the good people left our lives one after the other. Whereas some people never gave up being ‘nice’ however much evil man can be, there are those who always had strong energy for destruction.

Maybe it is true what Andy Rooney said by ‘the average dog is a nicer person than the average person’ for the stories that live to be told, prove exactly that.

An old man narrates his touching story, some time back when he was working as a night watchman at a European based School. It was during one of those long nights in duty when a young lady appeared at the school gate, looking tired and in despair. She humbly asked for help from the old man for a place to sleep over night for she had no other place to go and she knew no one around. The young woman told her sad story of how she lost a large amount of money and some of her important documents. She was clearly a very learned lady, just caught up with misfortunes.

The old man, feeling pitiful, let her into the school compound and let her sleep under a mango tree. He asked for her phone for the night for security purposes and she agreed on that. The lady slept and very early the next morning, the old man woke her up so that she may leave as fast as possible, before teachers and directors of the school arrived and found her there. It was obviously a great risk he was taking and if caught, it would have cost his job. He quickly gave her the phone back and let her leave peacefully.

Some months later, the young lady was back at the school gate, pleading for help from the old man once again. The old man, knowing that she knew no one in Mombasa; he gave her another chance to spend the night under the same mango tree.

Interestingly, this wasn’t the end of the young lady’s trips to the old man. Months later, she came again to the school gate in search for the good old man but unfortunately, the fellow watchman informed her that the old man was at leave. She asked for his home address and took her route to his place. The old man was surprised at this third visit but none the less, he welcomed her in his humble home and let her stay with his family and helped with the little he had. He went ahead and helped her in search for a job and to get her money back. It was impossible to get her money back but she was got a job that suited her high education level.

The young lady soon started working and after one year of living at the old man’s house, she left. At her first months at the port, she visited the old man once in a while and showed appreciation. She even promised to help the old man when she prospered in her job. Soon later, the young lady was highly promoted and she became very successful and rich. She now forgot all about the kind old man, he refused to acknowledge him or even talk to him. The old man was deeply hurt by how the lady turned out to be but none the less, he avoided her completely.

Surely, what goes around comes around; the young lady was soon robbed off everything she had. After so long now is when she re approached the old man; not to thank him or regret her actions but to accuse him for the robbery. The old man was speechless and so shocked by her accusations and to date, the old man lives to tell his experience on the price of being humane. The young lady is still holding a big post and rich with all she needs while the old man still lives in his poor condition and just watches her from afar not wanting to even get near her ever again.

Expectations do hurt because when the human’s mask falls off and the real face is exposed, we definitely won’t like what we’d see. True to Sean O’Casey words ‘The entire world’s a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.’