Will you go and help him, ditch him or simply wish that he comes out of the problem sooner?

About nine years ago, happened to see one of my friends in the press for all bad reasons. I knew this friendly, soft spoken gentleman for about five years and we worked from a same building. Often we used to go out for coffee and snacks in the morning and in the evenings. He was working for a company heading its Chennai operations. He has helped me with his client databases and personally introduced me to couple of his clients and I had definitely benefitted from this relationship.

It was a shocker to me when I knew that he has been taken into police custody for all wrong things in the world….showing pornography to children in his neighborhood and taking advantage of their innocence to seducing and using married women for monetary gains.  

I didn’t know what to do at that time. I was in a quandary.  Should I visit him to find out the actual facts of the scenario? Should I offer him mental, financial or other supports he may need?  Should I keep a distance?

 It was really a tough call.

A part of me was saying ‘ Go help a friend who is in trouble’.

Another part of me was saying ‘He is s criminal. He has played with lives of innocent children. He should pay a heavy price for that. Keep away.’

Some of us must have experienced such situations. A nice, gentle, trust worthy friend or a colleague’s darker side getting exposed. Or an unacceptable behavior of them coming out with clear proofs.

Imagine for a moment Shankar Mishra (the Air India urination incident) happens to be a good friend or a colleague of yours. What will you do in this situation? Will you stand for a friend? To what extent? Will you help him, ditch him or simply wish that he comes out of the problem sooner?

Please share your thoughts in the comments section.