Forgiveness instead of shaming makes a better society. ??

A young teacher returned to his alumni. To his old teacher, he said “Sir, I am teacher now because of you. Through you I saw how a teacher can impact his students’ lives.”

“Sir, do you remember me?”

Unfortunately, the teacher didn’t. He tries to refresh his teacher’s memory: “A schoolmate had a new watch that I wanted very much. When the chance arose, I stole it. When the matter was reported, you asked for the boy who took it to own up. No one did.”

“You got us all to stand in a line and close our eyes. You proceeded to check our pockets one by one. You found the watch in mine. At that moment, I was so prepared to be called out, and wondered how I would face my classmates, but instead you continued to check down the line.”

When you were done, you instructed us to open our eyes.

You said to the class, "To take what doesn’t belong to you is not right. We forgive the person who stole it, but this must not happen again.”

“I felt shame. I also felt undeserving. You protected my dignity in making right what I had done wrong and you gave me an opportunity to start afresh.”

“Sir, Surely you remember the boy who took the watch?”

"I remember the incident but not the boy. My eyes were closed too."