Benicio Hoffmann is seven years old, and that day he just wanted to ride his bicycle around his neighborhood in Curitiba, Brazil. He fell, hit a parked car and, instead of running away like any scared child would, he stayed there thinking about what to do.
He took a piece of paper and wrote, in his clumsy childlike handwriting: “Good morning. I hit your car. I fell off my bicycle. Here is my father’s phone number”. He left it on the windshield and went away calmly, knowing he had done the right thing.
Marcelo, the vehicle’s owner, had not even noticed the scratch until he read the note. Moved by the little boy’s honesty, he decided not to charge anything for the repair. Marcel Weiss Hoffmann, Benicio’s father, later said that his son would not rest until he found a solution. Sometimes the greatest lesson in responsibility comes from the one with the fewest years.