Have you ever met someone really ruthless?

There was an old man in our neighborhood who was quite the troublemaker, using his age to act shamelessly. He’d often drink half a bottle of water, leave it on the side, and then take someone else’s. Later, he even started stealing—taking other people’s food deliveries and parcels, opening them up, keeping anything useful, and throwing away what he didn’t need, often just leaving the packaging behind. He would often scratch up people’s cars with his electric tricycle.

Eventually, he stole a package belonging to a middle-aged man in the neighborhood. When the man confronted him about it, the old guy cursed him out and even tried to hit him. But the middle-aged man didn’t put up with it and kicked him down, reportedly even stomping on his hand. Since most people disliked the old man, no one called the police, so he just lay there downstairs, wailing for quite a while.

His son eventually reported it, but there were no cameras in the area, so there was no evidence that it was the man who kicked him. The old man’s son went to the middle-aged man’s home to shout at him, but he got beaten up and thrown out. Apparently, it wasn’t a light beating. They called the police, and the middle-aged man was detained for 15 days.

After he got out, he went to the old man’s house and sent all four family members to the hospital. The police tried to get him to pay for damages, but he’s a deadbeat with no money, over a million yuan in debt, and the house is under his brother’s name. He only spent a bit over six months in jail and then was released.

This made me feel that sometimes only bad people can deal with other bad people in society.