SALT LAKE CITY, Utah-

Doing foolish things as a child is part of life. I was better behaved than many kids I knew, but I still grew up making my fair share of mistakes. I did things at the time I didn’t give much thought to, but after many years I realized how the ill-advised actions and their consequences helped to form me as an adult. Had I never made the mistakes and faced the consequences they would have been a valuable lessons missed.

When a young person gets away with doing something wrong or against the law, they typically forget about it quickly. With their minds racing about girls/boys, money, alcohol, and other gratifying things, little time is left to dwell on mistakes, much less any time to repent for them.

In Utah, an unknown man made a mistake as a child and could not let his transgression go. Thirty-five years before, the mystery man had stolen a stop sign from an intersection and his actions had haunted him ever since. Over the years he had prayed many times that no one had ever been hurt from the missing sign and even called the Utah Department of Transportation in an attempt to correct his mistake, but was told not to worry about it. Not satisfied, he took out a cashier’s check in the amount of $600 and anonymously mailed it to the UDOT, signing it, “a very foolish youth.”

The UDOT of transportation spokesman said the money would almost pay for the installation of three new stop signs.

The moral of the story: If you anonymously send $600 to a transportation department to fix a wrong you did 35 years ago, you’d better get over it, you have more than paid your dues.

© 2010 StrangeRush.com

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