One fine day, which seemed like every other day, a bus driver went to the bus garage, started his bus, and drove off along his designated route. Usually, the bus driver never had any problem with his passengers, but he was about to find out that this was not going to be one of those days. This day will be different and change his life forever. At the first couple of stops, everything was, as usual, a few people got on, a few got off, and things went generally well. At one of the last stops, however, a big hulk of a guy got on. Six feet eight, built like a wrestler, arms hanging down to the ground. He glared at the driver and said, “Big John doesn’t need to pay!” and sat down in the back. The driver was so shocked that he just sat there speechless and wondering why this just happened and what would happen if he stood up to the bully?

While thinking about how it would end if he stood up to the bully, he also remembered that he is only five feet three, thin, and without any self-defense skills. He knew it wasn’t smart to argue with Big John, but he also wasn’t happy about the whole situation. The next day the same thing happened. Big John got on again, made a show of refusing to pay, and sat down. And the next day, and the one after that and so forth. This really bothered the bus driver, who started losing sleep over the way Big John was taking advantage of him. Finally, he couldn’t stand it any longer. He decided to stand up to the bully, so he signed up for bodybuilding courses, karate, judo, and all that good stuff. While training the bus driver told everyone what had happened to him, how unfair everything was, and how he was doing everything to stand up to the bully one day.

After almost a year of hard training in the gym and different martial art studios, he had become quite strong and he felt really good about himself. So he decided that the next day Big John tries to pull his trick he will confront him. The day finally came when Big John once again got on the bus and said, “Big John doesn’t pay!” But this time the driver stood up, glared back at the passenger, and screamed, “And why not,” while pulling up his sleeves. With a surprised look on his face, Big John replied, “Big John has a bus pass, so like Big John said many times… Big John doesn’t pay.” The bus driver apologized to Big John for screaming at him sat down and took a couple of minutes to think over what he had put himself through over the past year and how all of it could have been avoided if he had just asked Big John the very first day why he didn’t have to pay. At the end of the day when the bus driver got back to the martial arts studio, his mentor asked him, “So did you stand up to the bully this time?” The bus driver told his mentor what had happened and how wrong he was from the start. His mentor calmly said, “Sometimes there is no bad guy only miscommunication.”