True humility brings repentance and change, as the following account by Elder Adam C. Bennion demonstrates:
The two following incidents, related by the principal of one of Utah’s high schools, illustrate clearly the difference between a repentant and a self-justifying attitude. Two boys had been caught stealing—one had taken some money from another student’s locker, and the other had stolen some tools from the manual training department… .
The boys were called into the office and each one was interviewed separately. The boy who had taken the money was resentful. He said that he was not the only boy in the school who was stealing. Why did not the principal find the others and punish them too? Anyway, he felt that he had a right to take money if a fellow didn’t know better than to leave it in a locker that wasn’t locked.
The boy who had taken the tools felt altogether different. He was ashamed to think that he would lower himself to the level of a thief. He explained that he knew better than to steal but he had seen the tools lying around, they were just what he needed in doing some work at home, he couldn’t afford to buy them, and thinking that perhaps they would never be missed, he took them. When he reached home, he could not make proper explanation to his parents and he was sent back to the school to be disciplined.
The principal was anxious to help both boys—he not only wanted them to finish their schooling—he wanted them to learn one of life’s greatest lessons—that honesty is one of the grandest principles in the world. He explained to them that they would have to appear before the teachers of the school, make a statement of the whole affair, and give assurances that such actions would never be repeated.
The boy who had stolen the money flatly refused. He would rather quit school than, as he called it, “be disgraced.” The law of the school was enforced and he was asked to withdraw. He left the school with defiance in his soul and with a sort of determination that he would get even with somebody—though he didn’t seem to know just who it should be.
Out of the school he found that he had lost the respect of his old comrades, and the new ones who took their places were of a far inferior sort. He soon went from bad to worse until when last heard of he had been sent to the State Industrial School where he might be prevented from committing further crime.
The boy, on the other hand, who had taken the tools agreed to do as the principal required. It was a hard thing to do, of course. In fact, it was the hardest he had ever encountered. He not only was ashamed for what he had done, but how could he ever look those teachers in the face again? But feeling really sorry for the offense, he found courage to take the penalty. He was so manly and frank about it that every one of the teachers, who heard his confession, came to admire him more than ever before. They became his friends and took particular pains to help him find and develop his better self. When he was graduated from the school two years later he was an honor student—respected by every student who knew him. The humility of repentance had led him into a new life. Let us remind ourselves of that beautiful passage in the Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 112, the tenth verse: “Be thou humble, and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers.” (“What It Means to Be a Mormon,” 80–83; in Leon R. Hartshorn, Exceptional Stories from the Lives of Our Apostles [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1972], 25–26)