Once upon a time, they caught a thief and sentenced him to death by hanging, because while he was stealing, someone tried to stop him and he killed him, so he was condemned for murder, not only for the thefts he had committed.
Just as he was ready to climb the gallows, in front of the eyes of a crowd of people who were watching, his mother came and was crying, shouting:
“my poor child, what was destined for you to suffer”.
Then the condemned thief said to his mother: “come closer mother, so I can tell you something in your ear before I breathe my last”.
The mother of course approached, and the condemned thief bit off her ear with one bite.
All the people who were watching the scene were left astonished, and they asked to learn why he did this.
Then the thief said:
“listen to my whole story, if you want to learn it: when I went to school as a little boy, in the first grade I stole a writing tablet. And then this mother of mine whom you see, did not hit me nor scold me, she even told me ‘bravo! just be careful that no one learns about it’. In the second grade I stole a piece of clothing: again this mother of mine, did not scold me, she even told me ‘bravo, just make sure no one learns about it’. In every grade I went to school, I was stealing bigger and bigger things, and this mother of mine whom you see, was rejoicing. When I finished school, I had made it my pride to steal and not get caught, and I reached the point of living only by theft. That’s how I reached the point of committing murder too, for which you caught me and will hang me. That’s why she deserves that I bit off her ear with my teeth (or: her nose), so that the cut ear (or: the nose) reminds her how much harm she did me when I first stole an old writing tablet and instead of scolding me, she even told me ‘bravo’!”
Moral lesson from the Aesop’s Fable:
"You must cut the evil at its root, while it is still early."