The following was copied from the internet. It tells of an event in the life of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.
“One bitterly cold night in January of 1935, the mayor turned up at a night court. The court served the poorest ward of the city. Mayor LaGuardia dismissed the judge for the evening and took over the bench himself. Within a few minutes, a tattered old woman was brought before him, charged with stealing a loaf of bread. She told Mayor LaGuardia that her daughter’s husband had deserted her.
Her daughter was sick and her two grandchildren were starving. But the shopkeeper, from whom the bread was stolen, refused to drop the charges. “It’s a really bad neighborhood, your Honor,” the man told the mayor. “She’s got to be punished to teach other people around here a lesson.” Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia sighed. He turned to the woman and said, “I’ve got to punish you. The law makes no exceptions. Ten dollars or ten days in jail.” Even as he pronounced the sentence, the mayor was already reaching into his pocket.
He extracted a bill and tossed it into his famous hat. He proclaimed, “Here is the ten dollar fine which I now remit; and furthermore I am going to fine everyone in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat.
Mr. Bailiff, collect the fines and give them to the defendant. ”The following day, a New York newspaper reported the incident. A bewildered woman who had stolen a loaf of bread to feed her starving grandchildren received $47.50. The grocery store owner himself contributed fifty cents of that amount.