Soapy’s life was fine during spring, summer and autumn, but not so good in the winter. When November arrived, Soapy always found the way to stay indoors, away from the cold, and had three meals a day without paying one cent. The trick was simple: he broke the law.
Last autumn, when nights got too cold to sleep in the park, Soapy realized it was time to make arrangements for his annual winter trip. He walked over to Fifth Avenue around 10 a.m. one morning and sent a stone crashing through a glass window of a big department store. Then he stood calmly by the window, waiting. As he had expected, a policeman came running around the corner. Soapy confessed immediately that he was the one who had broken the window. Yet the policeman did not believe him. Soapy also failed in his second scheme: the woman he tried to harass verbally was, much to his surprise, overwhelmed and in fact thanked him for being the first man ever to say such sweet words to her.
It was about noon that Soapy came near a fancy restaurant. He decided to walk in for a big free lunch. When it was time for the bill, he told the manager he had no money and suggested that he have him arrested. The manager, realizing what was going on, asked Soapy to follow him into the kitchen, where a big pile of dirty dishes was waiting to be washed. Three hours later, the exhausted Soapy returned to the street.
Then the night came, and it was too cold for Soapy to sleep in Central Park. So he wandered about until he found himself standing in front of a church. The choir were practicing a song. “We often sang it in church. I showed great promise once, but look at me now. I’ve got to change. Yes, I’ll take the job offered last week as a truck driver.” At this moment, the policeman appeared again, arresting him on a charge of vandalism. Soapy was then taken to the night court, where the judge sentenced him to three months in jail.
What is the moral of this story?