It was a quiet Saturday afternoon on the university's campus. The day before all the USA festivities began on July 4th. Joe, a junior at the school, was taking a quick nap at the courtyard of the student union. Joe had a big summer session exam coming up so he was studying all hours of the day and night and he was exhausted. As all students know, there are consequences for every move you make in college. Using time to take a nap could be the difference between and A and a B on an exam. Being caught off guard caused consequences for all parties involved. As everybody knows, there are consequences to all our actions, good or bad. John and Johnny, some guys who lived in the same dorm as Joe, saw Joe sleeping there and wanted to mess with him.
"Hey John, you seeing what I'm seeing?" asked Johnny.
"Oh Johnny, I'm seeing a sleeping Joe and a prank waiting to be pulled!" exclaimed John in a whisper shout. With that, John and Johnny went to the store to get some supplies.
Joe was having restless sleep as he had just watched a documentary on war and being caught in the crossfire of dangerous and loud machinery. He was dreaming that the student union building was collapsing and the school was under attack. This awful dream caused Joe to wake in a fright. Just in time for the awakening of Joe, John and Johnny set off firecrackers hoping to frighten Joe. The noise not only sounded like gunfire going off, but it happened so fast Joe thought he was in danger and a machine gun was firing at him. He panicked and believed that his dream of the student union collapsing and the school being under attack was real and that he was in grave danger. He started running as fast as he could to the dorms to warn people.
Although it was a quiet day on campus, several students were outside hanging out with friends and enjoying the cool weather. Paul was the first student to see Joe running and wondered what he was doing so he decided to follow him. Joe was screaming that the school was under attack thus causing many of the students to follow him to safety out of fright.
"EVERYBODY RUN! THE SCHOOL IS UNDER ATTACK! RUN! RUN! RUNNNNNNNNN!!" Joe screamed.
The students who had heard him did not ask questions but they instead followed Joe, trusting him and the information he was spewing. The closer they got to the dorms, dozens of students had joined them thinking the worst.
As the crowded neared the dorms, Ralph, the resident advisor, went outside to see what the commotion and screaming in terror was about.
"What is going on? Why are you all in a panic?" asked Ralph.
"Joe said the school was under attack, so we all started running!" explained Paul.
"Joe, what happened? What did you hear to make you think this?" asked Ralph immediately upon hearing the reason for the panic.
"Iwasrestingmyeyesoutsidetheunion. IheardexplosivenoiseslikegunfiresoIstartedrunning," gasped Joe without taking any breaths between his words.
"Joe, breathe. The school has not issued any word on an attack. Take me to where you were when you heard the noise," commanded Ralph.
As Joe started walking Ralph back to the union, the rest of the runners stayed at the dorms, calling and texting as many people as they could to spread the (non-confirmed) word on the school attack.
As Ralph and Joe got to where Joe had been sleeping, Ralph spotted John and Johnny laughing and playing with something. Ralph, noticing that the building was indeed not collapsing, went up to John and Johnny. He realized the loud, explosive noises were coming from the firecrackers John and Johnny were playing with.
"Boys, what do we have here?" asked Ralph in the scariest voice any of the three boys had ever heard.
"Hi, Ralph, we were just playing a prank on the kid. Not our fault he freaked out," said Johnny, totally not caring about all the panic he had just caused.
John and Johnny had not been so lucky to get off the hook.
"Okay boys, you've made your beds... I hope you enjoy sleeping in them," said Ralph in a calm voice and simply wrapped an arm around Joe's shoulder and led him back to the dorms to tell the other students there was no threat. John and Johnny followed behind, scared of their punishment. Ralph, being the fair adult he was, let them worry rather than come up with some sort of punishment.
"Students, there is no threat to the campus. It was a misunderstanding." Once the words came out of Ralph's mouth, all the students nerves calmed and they slowly returned to their normal activities.
With worry on their minds, John and Johnny finished off their semester doing everything they could for Joe as they believed that bad karma could be forgotten with good karma. As for Joe, he took advantage of the good deeds towards him, but knew that eventually time would run out on his good karma.
Author Note: The story written above is my interpretation of the Jataka tale "The Foolish, Timid Rabbit." The original tale is about a rabbit who believes the world is breaking up and starts running for the mountains to get to safety. Along the way, many animals join him, without question, until they reached the Lion King who demands to know what they are running from. The lion took the rabbit back to the site at which he believed the world was breaking. The real reason the rabbit was so spooked was due to a coconut falling. Upon return with the lion to the other animals, the lion warned the rabbit of his foolishness. To make this story relate more to my theme of karma and college, I changed the setting to be on a college campus and changed the ending to portray that all actions would lead to some kind of karma (whether it be good or bad). John and Johnny's actions led to the consequence of waiting for their karma, which ended up being their karma. In the end, the boys learned a lesson to be more thoughtful about their actions like the lion taught the rabbit to be more thoughtful of his actions.
Bibliography. "The Foolish, Timid Rabbit" by Ellen C. Babbitt. Website: The Jatakas
Picture Source: wikimedia