Sometimes the guilt of a crime is just too much to bear, and the perpetrator has to come clean or risk bearing the weight of his transgression for a lifetime.
For an Oregon fourth-grader, that crime was theft. The theft of a pen. Oh, and also a single hazelnut, from an undisclosed mixed nut bowl perhaps.
Oregon governor Kate Brown received a letter from Samuel, a fourth-grader who had recently visited the Capitol building, apologizing for a theft that had somehow gone unnoticed.
Samuel explained what he did and apologized, writing "these things were not mine and it was wrong for me to take them I'm very sorry."
He included the pen as well as a single dollar to reimburse the cost of the hazelnut. It is one of the more luxurious nuts, after all.
Samuel asked for the forgiveness of both the governor and the people of Oregon and generously, Brown granted him that peace in a handwritten note.
