One of the things that I really enjoy about living in Thailand is that for the most part, there isn't very much violent crime. Sure there is plenty of theft and petty crime such as the time that I left some coins outside my house to pay for my water bottles to get refilled and the coins were taken by god knows who, but you don't really hear about anyone getting assaulted, stabbed, shot, robbed at knife-point and stuff like this.
When it goes happen it is normally some sort of warring gang or something booze infused and even then it is very rare.
To hear about someone stabbing a monk because he "took too long to get the man 20 Baht (around 60 cents)" is quite alarming and it made national headlines. The person who did the stabbing is still at large.
The monk in question was doing his monk style duties at a Temple in Phuket when a man walked in and asked for 20 Baht. According to others that were there the man seemed to be in a great rush and was aggressive. Monks are known for their incredible patience and generosity but people don't often ask them for cash handouts. For the most part, a part of a Buddhist's obligations is to be giving things to the monks, who in theory are meant to subsist entirely off the generosity of the people that attend their temples.
This attack happened at 11pm and the monk who got stabbed was actually in the process of obtaining 20 Baht to give to the man but apparently took "too long" and was stabbed for his slowness. According to other monks, the abbot had no money in his robes so asked another monk to get the money to give to the man. What spurred the man to then stab the abbot, who was already going to give him the money, is anyone's guess.
The police are stating that the suspect, who has not been caught, was a drug addict. I always kind of roll my eyes when the police blame everything on drug addiction and they couldn't possibly know since they don't even know, as of yet, who the person is.
The stabber fled on his motorbike, then swapped his bike out for another one outside of a 7-11 that had the keys in it while the person was inside shopping. NEVER leave your keys in your bike is the lesson here.
This is not a hardened criminal though and this is evidenced by the fact that he left the escape bike behind and even left the knife that was used in the attack in the bike after he fled.
Now if you are Buddhist, you probably believe heavily in Karma. I am not religious but I like the idea of such a thing. Do bad things, bad things are coming your way; do good things, and good things are coming your way.
Can you think of anything worse that you could possibly do for your Karma than stabbing a holy man?
The police are very unlikely to just let this go since Thailand is officially a Buddhist country and they are quite proud of that. You can be assured that this man will be caught, and the punishment will be severe for him. They will also likely make him stand in front of the man he stabbed and the abbot will forgive him. That will change nothing about his future though, which is likely to be a long stint in a horrible Thai prison.