I caught him stealing my bike

I biked to the coffee shop this morning to get some work done as I typically do, except this time, I forgot my bike lock.  I was too lazy to bike back home to get it so I devised a plan to discreetly lay it against a bike rack in front of the coffee shop where I could keep watch while working.

After four hours of uneventful bike security monitoring, I caught a glimpse of an opportunistic bike thief in the corner of my eye as he grabbed my bike and rolled it out of the rack.  As if he could feel my surprised gaze, he raised his head just as I noticed him and our eyes connected.  He froze and nonchalantly motioned to the bike with his hand and then to me asking if it was mine.  I nodded, not knowing what to expect.  He proceeded to roll the bike back into its rack and went on his way like nothing ever happened.

Why did he do this?  Why didn’t he just run off with the bike?

Maybe he didn’t believe he was a thief because only a bike thief would steal a bike in the face of its owner.  Maybe he thought he was doing a public service by decluttering the streets of unclaimed bikes.  Maybe he thought taking unlocked bikes were a necessary evil so he could finance his next meal but only if there was no clear owner present.

I don’t know what the answer is.  But I do know that over the course of a couple seconds of our nonverbal encounter, I caught a glimpse of one of the universal stories we all tell ourselves.

Each of us has our virtues and vices that make up the story we tell about who we are.  The interesting thing is not the individual virtues and vices.  The interesting part is how they interplay with one another, how one virtue dispels one vice, how some virtues are emphasized and some vices disregarded.

Because at the end of the day, our virtues always shine brighter.  We all tell ourselves we are the good guys.  From the virtuous vigilantes to the most corrupt cops, we all believe we are the good guys.  No one wakes up in the morning and gets excited about being an evil villain.  We are all the heroes of our own story.  And there’s always a line between good and evil we won’t cross, because if we did, we would have to change our story.