Little Herbie Steals A Quarter

Little Herbie Steals a Quarter

Herbie was the sweetest little boy in the Maywood neighborhood of Indianapolis. He might have grown up to be an angel if his doting mother hadn’t died when he was four years old. Instead, his harsh father bullied him at home, turning him into a playground bully at school.

By the time he was a sixth grader, he was a back-alley brawler and petty thief. He dropped out after middle school and became a drifter. At age twenty he was arrested for stealing a car and joined the navy to avoid prosecution. But he soon deserted and was dishonorably discharged. He got married, but his violent temper killed the romance, and the marriage ended in a bitter divorce. After he and a buddy held up a grocery store, he was sentenced to twenty years for armed robbery. When he entered the Indiana State Prison, he snarled, “I will be the meanest SOB you ever saw when I get out of here!”

When he was paroled eight years later, his gang became the most prolific bank robbers in US history. His daring jailbreaks became the stuff of tabloid legend. He bragged to a reporter, “All my life I wanted to be a bank robber, carry a gun, and wear a mask. Now that it’s happened, I guess I’m about the best bank robber they ever had. And I sure am happy.”

The public adored him as something of a modern-day Robin Hood, but Herbie was a vicious psychopath who hobnobbed with notorious gangsters like “Pretty Boy” Floyd and “Baby Face” Nelson. J. Edgar Hoover declared him Public Enemy Number One and launched the biggest manhunt in US history to bring him to justice.

Maybe you remember Herbie by his full name: John Herbert Dillinger. Mary Dillinger’s little angel had grown up to be the meanest man you ever saw. Not long before he was shot down in an FBI ambush, John Dillinger confided to a friend, “I can trace my life of crime back to when I was nine years old. I stole a quarter from my old man’s wallet. I was scared that he would find out and give me a beating, but I got away with it. After that, stealing became easy.”

Little Herbie stole a quarter. It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time. But it led to a lifetime of choices that created John Dillinger, Public Enemy Number One. No choice is insignificant. Your decisions are the hinges on which your destiny hangs. French philosopher Albert Camus wrote, “Life is the sum of all your choices.” John Dillinger was no philosopher, but he would probably agree with Camus.

You will make thousands of choices today. A few may be carefully weighed, but most will be impulsive or unconscious. The vast majority probably won’t warrant a second thought. But none will be unimportant. So do yourself a favor. Reflect long and hard on the story of a little boy who stole a quarter. Your decisions today may not lead to such high drama, but this much is true for each of us:

Monumental consequences are shaped by momentary choices.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6, NASB