Paint That Never Dried
We live behind a subway station, which gives us many opportunities to perform the mitzvah of hashavas aveida, but also means that suspicious characters hang out near our building at all hours. There are security incidents almost daily.
The subway wall is actually one of the walls around our yard, and one day I came home and was shocked to find huge graffiti on the entire wall. I had no idea who could have done this, but one thing was clear to me. I did not want my children to see this, no matter what. I took an old pail of paint and a huge paintbrush down from the attic, and painted the wall from top to bottom in the middle of the night. The results weren’t very aesthetic, but it definitely covered the graffiti completely. Since it was very late, I wasn’t careful to leave a “Caution! Wet paint” sign. I figured that by morning, the paint would have dried. What I didn’t take into account was that quick-drying paint doesn’t dry if the wall has lots of moisture.
When I left my house in the morning, I noticed a group of children getting onto a bus with white stains decorating some of their briefcases. I checked the wall, and saw that I was in trouble. The paint was shiny in some places as if it had just been applied, and in other places it was dirty and stained. A small note pasted on the wall read Whoever painted this wall is a thief!
I was so upset. I had no idea what had been damaged and how much damage people had suffered. I quickly called a professional to take care of the paint, and hung a note on the wall asking people to contact me for complete compensation. I got several calls over the next few days, and had to pay a substantial amount for ruined suits and hats, but I knew that there were definitely more people that had suffered damage. Thousands of people pass through this station daily! With no other option, I deposited the approximate cost of the damage in the Neki Kapayim fund before Yom Kippur 5782. May this action be a kappara for me.