It was a one-in-a-million chance that a mother who lost her new-born infant girl four years ago -- in this case abducted from a hospital in Khon Kaen when she was only two days old -- would ever see her again and get her back in good shape.
Credit should be given to the staff at Wangtathep school in Thep Sathit district of Chaiyaphum province who noticed something was not right about the girl's birth certificate when she was escorted to the school by her grandfather for enrolment.
Admittance to the kindergarten was rejected and the case reported to district police. Had the school staff not been suspicious and not alerted the police, the girl would still be with her abductor, or surrogate mother, if you will.
Credit should also be given to the 4th regional police, particularly Pol Col Kasem Muthaporn, who tirelessly investigated the case and took the girl's DNA for checks with the DNA records of missing children. Eventually, a match was found with the record of a missing baby reported by Kalsuda Samdaeng in Khon Kaen four years ago.
Police arrested the surrogate mother, 32-year-old Anchulee Chitkhuntot, in Chaiyaphum province. The woman, who is reported to be quite well-off, told police she had suffered a miscarriage after six months of pregnancy and decided to steal the baby girl, lying to her husband and everyone in the family that the baby was hers.
Mrs Anchulee said she abducted the baby from her real mother because she was desperate to have a child of her own. She also said that if she goes to prison for her crime, she will, when freed, try to negotiate with the child's family to get her back.
Meanwhile, the girl's grandparents and family are preparing a homecoming ceremony for her today. However, child welfare officials in Khon Kaen say the girl will not be immediately returned to her family because she needs time to adjust to the new environment. Thus, she will be placed in their care for a while.
The lucky ending to this abduction case is undoubtedly attributable to the police and the staff of Wangtathep school. It is also, I believe, the result of the law of karma, or the law of cause and effect, as far as Mrs Anchulee is concerned. No matter how well she has treated and raised the girl, she still committed a serious crime -- and a serious sin -- for causing immense suffering to the birth mother, Ms Kalsuda, for snatching away her loved one four years ago.
And as far as the law of karma is concerned, last week saw this Buddhist law play out in at least two high-profile court cases -- the Santika pub's horrifying fire which killed 67 New Year's revellers and injured 100 others seven years ago, and the Marine Department's 2 billion baht dredging boat corruption scandal.
In the dredging boat case, former Marine Department director-general Jong-art Bodhisuntorn and six other officials were sentenced to two years imprisonment for illegally changing the contract in a way that was beneficial to the supplier, the US-based Ellicott Machine company.
Some people may feel that two years' imprisonment is too lenient for the 2 billion baht damage that was caused to the state. But imagine the lengthy trial -- over 10 years and three courts -- they went through and the two-year jail term they will have to serve. Quite painful already.
Then there is the Santika pub fire seven years ago. The owner, Wisuk Setsawat, alias Sia Khao, who was acquitted by the Appeals Court, was given three years in jail by the Supreme Court, which also upheld the lower court's three-year verdict on Boonchu Laosenat, a director of the company who was in charge of the pub's lighting system on that fateful night.
The legal proceedings in both cases were time-consuming, but in the end, karma caught up. Whoever does bad things will, one day, pay for the consequences of their actions, no matter how powerful they are -- or used to be.
Pretty soon, we should see the law of karma catch up with others who have done bad things to the country but have never expressed any kind of remorse for their actions because they wrongly believe they are untouchable and well protected.
Veera Prateepchaikul is a former editor, Bangkok Post.