The following was the second most popular microblog post on China’s leading microblogging platform Sina Weibo yesterday, with over 40k comments at time of translation…

From Sina Weibo:

@人民日报 [The People’s Daily]: “Helping the Elderly” Once Again Suffers Being Sued for Compensation, Fortunately There Was Surveillance Footage… She helped up an elderly person who had fallen and had advanced 200 yuan in medical expenses but Ms. Wang didn’t hear any thanks and instead was demanded to compensate [the elderly person] 40,000 yuan in medical expenses. She maintained that she had helped out of kindness, but the elderly person instead insisted she was the person responsible for the accident. “If it wasn’t you who knocked me down, why would you have helped take me to the hospital?” Fortunately, surveillance footage restored the truth, with the elderly person and family repeatedly apologizing… http://t.cn/zQdya1Z Don’t let kindness once again cause harm!

The above link leads to this article…

From Liaoning News:

“If It Wasn’t You Who Knocked Me Down, Why Would You Have Helped Take Me to the Hospital?”

She helped up an elderly person who had fallen and helped cover 200 yuan in medical expenses but Ms. Wang didn’t hear a single thanks and instead was demanded to compensate [the elderly person] 40,000 yuan in medical expenses.

She maintained that she had helped out of kindness, but the elderly person instead insisted she was the offender. Surveillance footage on the public bus restored the truth. Lawyer Zhang Wenxin pointed out that the wronged kind-hearted woman could sue the elderly person, under the right to restore her good name.

She helped the fallen elderly person up and paid for the medicine

At around 8am on the morning of July 28th, Wang Lan boarded the Route 23 public bus to her work at the Panjin Liaohe oil fields. That day, there were quite a lot of people on board, and when they arrived at the Drill Marketplace stop, many passengers were by the bus door preparing to get off. Ms. Wang Lan told this reporter that while getting off, she saw someone ahead who had fallen down and instinctively extended a hand to help up the elderly person, with another kind-hearted person at the time helping support the elderly person to the steps of the bus stop to sit down.

Yesterday afternoon, this Beiguo Net and Liaoning Evening News reporter met Ms. Wang. She says she’s normally a kind-hearted person, had seen the elderly person crying out in pain, guessed that the injuries weren’t light, and had immediately asked for the telephone number of the elderly person’s family. After the elderly person’s relative heard that the elderly person had fallen down, they immediately rushed over, and Ms. Wang accompanied them in taking the elderly person to the hospital. Owing to having rushed out the house, the elderly person’s relatives did not have any cash on them, so Ms. Wang even paid 200 RMB for the medicine expenses.

Accused of being the person responsible for the accident as she prepared to leave

Breathing a sigh of relief thinking she had helped [the elderly person] out of danger, Ms. Wang was then shocked by something the other party said, “When I was getting off the bus, she was the one closest to me.” The old lady identified Ms. Wang as having knocked into her while getting off the bus and that is what made her twist her foot/ankle.”

“If it wasn’t you who bumped into me, why would you have helped take me to the hospital? Don’t you leave.” The elderly person’s relatives stopped Ms. Wang as she prepared to leave.

“Ma’am, don’t [make false accusations], it wasn’t me who bumped into you, I saw you already on the ground when I got off the bus.” Because she could not find a witness there, Ms. Wang was completely flustered and immediately cried that she was wronged.

So had she helped out of kindness or was she taking the responsibility she owed for bumping someone? Both sides stuck to their version of the event until ultimately, with no other choice, both parties found themselves at the Panjin city Xinglongtai district Judicial Bureau Xinglong Judicial Office. At the judicial office, the old lady claimed she has already spent 40,000 yuan for her hospital stay and medical care and wanted Ms. Wang to compensate the entire medical expense.

Surveillance video on public bus restores the truth

Just as both parties were arguing in the judicial office, Ms. Wang suddenly remembered that there were surveillance cameras on the public bus.

Through negotiation, the surveillance footage was obtained, and only then was the the situation at the time made clear — The surveillance footage showed that the elderly person had fallen on her own, and Ms. Wang had no physical contact whatsoever with the elderly person prior to the latter falling down.

After the facts of the matter were determined, the elderly person and her relatives repeatedly apologized, saying they had wrongly blamed a good person, and repaid the 200 yuan medicine expense that Ms. Wang had previously paid. Surveillance footage showing the facts resolved the dispute.

Ms. Wang expressed that this incident made her rather sad, to have done good without recognition, but will still extend a hand in help if she should encounter similar situations in the future, because after all, reasonable people are still the majority in this society.

Well-known lawyer Zhang Wenxin pointed out that the wronged kind-hearted woman could sue the elderly person, under the right to restore her good name, and that normally in these kind of cases, as long as there is a witness, the person wronged will usually be compensated.

Interview

Will still extend a hand in help when encountering someone who needs help

Originally helping out of kindness only to narrowly escape being wronged as the “offender/person responsible”. So then, what does Wang Lan think now? If she were to encounter a situation like this in the future, will she still extend a hand in help? Yesterday, this reporter interviewed Ms. Wang Lan.

Reporter: At the time, no one else dared to go help the elderly person up, so why did you still go?

Wang Lan: This is simply the most basic sense of duty and kindness that comes with being a person. At the time, I just wanted to help and didn’t consider anything else. What more, I had previously experienced something where afterward as long as I encountered someone who need help, I would always extend a hand in help.

Reporter: How did you feel about being wrongly accused?

Wang Lan: When I was wrongly accused, I felt terrible, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat.

Reporter: What will you do if you encounter this kind of thing again?

Wang Lan: The miserable moaning of the elderly person when she fell is still in my mind to this day so I will still go forward to help the elderly person. “The straight body does not fear the shadow being crooked” [a good person won’t have a guilty conscience], everyone will become old one day/ I think the elderly have their own difficulties, and things [the truth/facts] will ultimately be made clear.

Comments from Sina Weibo:

老卢Berserker：

So just apologizing is enough?

鸿辉_Ng：

This is simply how society is.

小名游蛋：

This kind of elderly person…

苦瓜大师啊啊啊：

The apology is so fake.

随风不思议：

What use is the apology? It should be possible to sue for this kind of thing, right? Total slander!

怕瓦落地归来：

This elderly person sure is shameless!

燃烧贝蒂：

Sue them for slander!

一杯白白白开水：

Sue them! People like this absolutely must know the consequences of slander.

罗锅洋毅范：

I propose that city governments install and use more surveillance cameras…

舊報紙lin：

Fuck, this kind of thing should be sentenced [to prison], slander plus extortion.

Bigpawpaw：

There needs to be a penalty/punishment measure [for this kind of wrongful accusation].

BUCHANA：

Apologizes after being seen through, thinking next time use a place without surveillance cameras.

盖丫头：

If I were to run into [something like this], I’d first turn on my sound recorder.

汤小小小鑫很小：

Sigh, what if there wasn’t surveillance footage, then what?

Ignorant_YYM：

Never going to help support those fucking elderly ever again.

我不取名字了烦：

Next time take note, before being a good person, first look to see if there are surveillance cameras nearby.

逸云楚风：

I support a lawsuit, because if a case isn’t made of this, there will be even more people like this in the future. Sue them and demand that the elderly publish an apology in the newspapers.

那么一天我在：

Fuck, this kind of thing has happened in Shijiazhuang before too. This kind of person should be punished. It is these fuckers who have destroyed social morality.

老了还在装嫩：

This kind of false accusations will not stop if there isn’t a kind of punishment.

浅唱Freedom：

Is there no legal liability for extortion and blackmail?

Alath：

Apologize your mother’s cunt, the entire family is low.

Queen_cwj：

Apologizing is already useless, there should be relevant measures… otherwise, there will be fewer and fewer good people.

甘草-陈皮：

This kind of person’s apology is about the same as a fart.

王泓植：

I think with this kind of thing, an apology isn’t enough. When it comes to things that have no cost or consequence, anyone will dare to continue doing it.

LYP咯：

There is one less person in the already small number of good people in this world… sigh…

叫我梅哥：

What wrongly blamed?! It was deliberate!

彼堓荼靡：

It really does make one feel helpless when encountering unreasonable people who don’t distinguish between right and wrong.

Below was the most popular microblog post, with nearly 200k forwards/reshares (at time of translation), almost 3x more than the second most popular…

From Sina Weibo: