A Kidnapping Story with a Good Ending

(Câu chuyện bắt cóc có hậu by thànhtâm on 25/04/12, translated by ngocxuan, edited by rain9811 and xiaobaiyun.)

My respect to Tổ, Thầy (Grandmaster and Teacher)
Greetings to Brother Oneway and everyone,

I would like to share a true spiritual tale that I heard from my mother’s friend, Mrs. Hien, when she visited my mother in the hospital.

Mrs. Hien lives at Bach Dang Street in the city of Qui Nhon. She has a son called Phuc who was married and has a son. When his son, Hau, was 11 months old, his wife left him. He and his mother looked after Hau, now 11 years old.

In 2011, Phuc worked as a security guard at Qui Nhon General Hospital. Everyday he left early and came home late, and often times had to be on call overnight. Hau went to school and helped his grandmother with household chores.

One Sunday in August 2011, Mrs. Hien asked her grandson to have the bike tires inflated at the local bike repair shop. Hau went and did not return after a long time. Worried, Mrs. Hien called her son and asked him to come home to look for the boy. It was evening time and Hau still did not show up. They thought maybe Hau had gone to play some video games and had forgotten the time. Everyone in the family helped in the search but unsuccessfully.

The following day, when Hau still did not come home, Phuc sensed that something serious had happened and sought help from the police. At the same time he also placed a missing person ad on the local TV broadcast.

Twenty days passed without any news of his son. Phuc was even duped by some scammers who phoned and told him to go to Phu Tai intersection to meet them otherwise he would never see his son again. Because of his love for his son, Phuc hurriedly went there with his brother. However, when he got there they told him to put money in their mobile phone card account so they could contact him. Phuc did as he was told but after putting in about 100,000 dong worth of credit, he was told that the money did not go through and he had to do it again. But they kept telling him they did not receive it and cursed him when he rang them. When Phuc had only 10,000 dong left, he realized that it was a scam. He phoned them once more but they had switched off their phone. Sadly, Phuc was crying on the way home with his brother.

Mrs. Hien became more grieved. She frequently went to church and prayed to the Virgin Mary. She had lost her appetite, not eating or drinking, and was admitted to the hospital for exhaustion. There she continued to pray to the Virgin Mary every day. In the morning about 3am, she would sit and cry on a stone bench because she missed her grandson.

Sharing the room with Mrs. Hien was an elderly woman who could not sleep well. The lady also went to the same stone bench to enjoy the cool night breeze. After a few days, she noticed that Mrs. Hien was crying every night so she approached her and asked: “Why do you always cry? Tell me and see if I can help.” Hien did not believe that an old woman all bent over could help her in any way so she did not answer her question, feeling bothered and even more distressed.

The next day, the old woman came again to offer her help. And again, Hien felt bothered and frustrated. She just gave a disapproving look at the old woman and turned away without answering.

On the third day, the old woman told her “you are so silly. Why are you crying your eyes out? Just tell me what makes you cry so much?” Mrs. Hien could no longer ignore the old woman’s persistence, so she turned to her and replied “ I have a 12 years old grandson. Today is the 28th day he has been missing. I am very scared of what might have happened to him. I don’t think I can live if anything bad happened to him.”

The old woman exclaimed “my goodness! Was that all that made you cry all this time? Don’t worry. I will show you a place tomorrow.” Seeing Mrs. Hien’s annoyed expression she said “Trust me. I will take you to this fortune-teller. She gives accurate readings and has helped many people.”

“Oh no, not one of those scammers again,” Mrs. Hien thought and went back to her room, depressed.

The following afternoon was a Saturday. The old woman urged Mrs. Hien to come with her; she saw Mrs. Hien’s reluctance and assured her that it would not cost any money to see the fortune teller besides transportation fares. Mrs. Hien agreed to take the trip thinking she had nothing to lose and thinking of her grandson always made her very anxious.

The two women then got on a motor bike taxi which took them to a mountainous region some 10 km away. Mrs. Hien started to feel a little nervous and asked the woman where they were when she saw a small house appeared some 200 meters away. The ‘house’ was rather an old hut when they got there. The old woman said: “Let’s go inside.”

In the room, Mrs. Hien saw a woman who looked over forty years old. There was an altar with a Buddha statue and some unknown figures on either side. The old woman introduced Mrs. Hien to the host who told her to burn incenses and kneel at the altar to ask for help. Being a Christian, Mrs. Hien was not familiar with the ritual and also a little suspicious. She told the old woman to do it for her as she did not know how. The old woman burned incenses and prayed at the altar on Mrs. Hien’s behalf. The host sat in front of the altar and mumbled incantations. Then she held out a bunch of hexagram sticks and told Mrs. Hien to pull out 9 of them. When Mrs. Hien gave her back the 9 sticks, the fortune teller looked at them for a while and announced “He’s around here!”

While Mrs. Hien was perplexed the woman continued “…your grandson is around here and not far away.” Mrs. Hien still did not understand what ‘around here’ meant. She was thinking “does it mean her grandson is here, in this place?”

The fortune teller went on: “Your grandson is close by, not in a faraway place; someone had taken him away but he has been well fed and unharmed.” Mrs. H thought that she was being tricked and asked “Tell me, what he was wearing before he was lost?” “He was wearing a yellow T-shirt and checked shorts. He’s been kidnapped and so he could not come home,” the woman replied.

Mrs. Hien had to admit what she said was correct, and was about to ask more questions regarding the identity of the kidnapper when she was asked to draw another 9 sticks. After examining them like last time, the fortune teller declared “At the latest he will come home tonight…if not tonight then certainly by tomorrow morning.”

“This is absurd.” Mrs. H thought to herself. “Who is she to talk like that?” It had been 28 days since her grandson was gone. Her family had looked everywhere, sought help from police, and placed missing person ads on TV and other places. They had spent lots of money and effort without any result. Mrs. Hien, so tired after her long trip and wary of the whole experience, came to the conclusion that this was a hoax for emotionally vulnerable people. She thanked the woman and quickly made her exit.

“Wait a minute!”, the host called out to her. “Here is some ‘loc’ (usually monetary gifts bestowed by the Saints) for you!” Mrs. Hien thought that “loc’ meant fruits on the altar and was about to politely decline. But the fortune teller wrote on a piece of yellow paper two numbers: 00 and 06, and said: “You can buy the lottery ticket with these numbers tonight.” She then returned to her table and continued sipping her tea.

Mrs. Hien and the old woman said their goodbyes and took the motorbike-taxi home. After paying 70,000 dong for the round trip fees, Mrs. H had 10,000 left. A neighbor of hers, who sold lottery tickets for a living, came and asked her to buy some. Mrs. Hien thought she could not buy anything much with 10,000 and to keep good neighborly relationship, she gave it to her saying: “That’s all I have, you can sell me whatever you want.” Then she went inside without bothering to take the tickets.

Once in her home, Mrs. Hien looked at the clock: 4:40 pm and it was getting dark. She did not believe that her grandson would return as the woman foretold but deep in her heart she hoped for it to be true. She kept pacing up and down, looking at the clock and keeping her eyes at the front door, counting every minute…5:00pm…5:10… 5:50 …

Suddenly, the phone rang. It was Thuong, her daughter. At the other end, Thuong was yelling “I have seen Hau. Don’t worry; I will bring him home immediately. Mom, you call Phuc and let him know that.”

About 20 minutes later, Thuong and Hau came home. Mrs. Hien was so happy that all she could do was to hug him, while Thuong told everyone how she found Hau.

In the afternoon, she was working when she suddenly felt an urge to go home early. After asking her manager for permission, she went out but instead of going home she felt like going to Thi Nai pond instead and drove there. Thi Nai pond is a desolated area for fresh water prawn farm, and a few wooden huts for their owners. As she was driving around, suddenly she saw Hau, being dragged by a man who held him by the hand. She quickly drove up to them and called out Hau by his name. She asked him where he had been for all these days and also asked the man who he was and why he was holding Hau’s hands. She told him she was Hau’s aunt. The man let go of Hau’s hand and ran away.

After his return, Hau kept gazing downward and did not speak. Everyone thought he was exhausted but by 8pm, he was still not talking. Then Thuong saw that he had some sort of dark colored strings tied on his wrist. She took it off and threw it into the fire. About five minutes later, Hau started to talk and told his family what had happened to him.

He was inflating the bicycle tires when a man tapped on his shoulder, telling him that his father, Phuc, wanted him to go to Twin Bridge to get something from his father’s acquaintance. He followed that man but the latter ended up keeping him in the wooden hut at the prawn farms. There were two other boys there. All of them were tied up during the day, and at night they were forced to peel away crabs shells. Because it was dark they did not know the way to go home.

The next day, Mrs. Hien received a few hundred thousand dongs from her neighbor, said to come from 2 numbers on the lottery ticket she bought yesterday. Upon concluding her story, Mrs. Hien laughed heartily, saying “I just could not figure that one out. How could there be such a strange coincidence? It must be coming from the ghost! Many people have since asked me where that fortune teller was but honestly I cannot remember where she lived.”

When I heard Mrs. Hien’s comment, I remembered the principle of “There is One Religion only” taught by To, Thay (grandmaster and teacher). I explained to Mrs. Hien: “Auntie, such correct prediction does not come from the ghost.”

Mrs. Hien appeared puzzled and I went further: “In reality, Buddha and the Lord are not against each other, likewise God and the supreme Creator is considered to be one. Because you have a good heart and sincerely believe in God, you were helped by the fortune teller, who works for Heaven under the Divinities.”

I further pointed out to Mrs. Hien that even though the fortune-teller was a Buddhist she was able to help her, a Christian, by giving good news about her grandson. That was proof that both Buddhism and Christinanity come from the same source. I also told her that this was an experience for her to understand this principle so she wouldn’t think like the other ignorant people who erroneously think their religion is different from others and they will not be blessed by the Divinities.

Mrs. Hien seemed to understand. She smiled and said she thought so too. She admitted the whole experience was quite interesting and amazing.

Dear To, Thay,
I am forever indebted to you for giving me Secret Teachings. I understand that each disciple of ours has a particular curriculum in one’s spiritual learning that depends on one’s situation, destiny and in different periods of time in one’s lives. This story has taught me about life and the Dharma, and given me the proof of “There is One Religion only” principle that Master and Teacher have been trying to teach us.

I am grateful to you for helping me on each step of the way of my cultivation path.

I wish good health to Master, Teacher, Religious brother Oneway and everyone.

thànhtâm