José Luis Villa is 68 years old and travels through towns in Antioquia with just one companion: Luna, his 7-year-old dog.
One day, he wanted to travel to El Santuario by bus and even offered to pay 25.000 Colombian pesos, about 7 dollars, so they would let both of them board. The driver said no. His reason was that the dog shed hair and smelled bad. José Luis insisted for several minutes, but the door never opened, and he had to find another way to continue his journey.
The story went viral, and the Transoriente company announced an internal investigation. Normally, one might expect a complaint or a request for the driver to be sanctioned. But José Luis left a message almost no one expected: “Don’t take any action against the driver; forgive him. I forgive him”.
He asked for just one thing: that something like this not happen again. After being left on the street with his little dog, he responded with something that isn’t always easy: empathy.