This afternoon I experienced one of the most shocking moments of my life...
I was in a cafe in a central mall in Athens for a business meeting with some of my colleagues.
At some point I get up to go to the toilet and pass by a nearby table where I see a mother, with her parents and a beautiful little boy in a stroller.
These days I'm especially excited when I see babies, probably because of my 2nd daughter…
I smile at them, they smile at me and because they looked at me a little strangely in a "what does he want" phase, I ask them how many months old they are. The girl answers me "3.5 months old" and I say "as wonderful as the daughter who was born on May 20". "And my 28" he answers me, we laugh and he says "give us your phone number in case we need it". I laugh and ask if he is the first child and he wants advice because we have two and he replies "not to have a daughter-in-law for our son". We all laugh together and I go to the bathroom.
Don't ask me why, boys never defecate with the door slightly open.
So I hear someone from outside asking if anyone is in the men's room and someone else replying that a gentleman has entered. The cleaning lady will be thinking and asking to come in to clean (we also tend to make scenarios in our minds with incomplete information).
Going out the front door I see this girl waiting at the door and next to her a tall guy who was the manager of the store.
He looks me in the eyes and says: "bring me the mobile phone you got".
It takes me a few seconds to figure out what's going on and in between I ask her if this is the mother I talked to outside.
"Yes" he answers me, "where is the cell phone you took from our table?" I'm going to call security and call the police."
I think my look of bewilderment (sort of like the picture I imagine) trying to process the situation calmly and soberly confused her.
"The cell phone above our table disappeared and you're the only one who went near it" he continues. The truth is that she looked nervous but more shocked and spoke in a very calm and polite tone.
"You must be doing something wrong" I reply calmly at some point.
I know my old friends, acquaintances and certainly my wife will be amazed at the calm reaction. The old Alexios would have cursed, fought and made a mess of the type you know who I am and such.
He continues with the same words and that I went to the bathroom to hide it and various scenarios and tells the person in charge to call mall security and she calls the police.
The person in charge tells her that the gentleman (me) has come to the store yesterday and today and from what I can see he is having some business meetings. And she looks at me with a look between sorry and I don't know what to do.
I calmly tell the girl to do what she understands, that she has insulted me and if she calls the police I will be forced to sue for moral damages. And how will I sit at the table with the partners who are waiting for me and I will be there.
Coming out of the next door, her father also comes up and says something to me like "bring the cell phone you stole" and something like that that I really didn't hear much. And I answered him nicely exactly the same as I said to the girl.
I sit in my seat in shock and I tell my colleagues (which they understood from my look) what exactly happened Our rhyme doesn't matter, I just explained to them in their question that I'm so calm and how crazy the world is that when all people get angry and attack it's because they've been hurt. The greater the pain, the more extreme the reaction. And how this knowledge helps me see the reaction as hers and not mine.
I did my breathing too and we continued our business talk.
At the same time, from where I was sitting, my eye caught the movements in the shop. Mall security showed up, cafe attendants were politely explaining theirs to people. The girl must, if I'm not mistaken, go to the toilets to check if the mobile phone is hidden somewhere.
After a few minutes he approaches the table and politely asks me if I can go to tell me (making sense to me that he doesn't want my colleagues to hear anything).
I approach and he apologizes if he offended me and that he was mad that the mobile phone was lost and that I was indeed the only one who approached. And how they explained to her from the store that I am a customer there and she obviously misunderstood me. And while she is telling me these things, her father comes and apologizes for the style and what he said. I shake his hand and he leaves. The girl continues a little more apologizing and telling me that maybe someone passed by and took it earlier and she will make a request to the cafe so that they can see from the cameras and sorry again.
And with a lot of love I simply tell her that I understand, that everything is okay and I ask her if i can give her a hug
After the surprise he happily says and there the work is done.
A hug can solve any misunderstanding.
A hug can say so much more than words.
A hug it can redeem both people who offer it.
I know that this whole particularly shocking event happened to me for a reason and it is my responsibility to look for the message and learn my own lesson.
With that hug I wanted to tell her
"Thank you. I'll look into it."
And to cheerfully close this long post...
...someone will tell me now, here today at Mundobasket in the quarter-finals, France eliminated the USA and Argentina eliminated Serbia, what happened to you shocked you... this someone will have some rights.
EN 
EL 