Who Was Crueler?

John Doe was found dead in a ditch somewhere. The cause of death was a fatal knife wound.

John Doe was of average height, average weight and average looks. He was an overall average

man.

The police went through his personal effect for the purpose of identification. He came from an average family and led an average life.

His parents had died and he had drifted so far apart from his siblings that they said that they were too busy with their own lives to come claim his body.

The police found his working pass. John Doe had an average job. The police went to his office to interview his colleagues but none of them seemed to have any recollection of this average man. The people at his office worked like drone and they barely had time for any meaningful interaction at work. John Doe could be exchanged for any other person at work and they probably wouldn't have been able to identify him either.

The police found his address and keys to his place. John Doe had an average home and an average romantic history. Without its owner, the home looked bleak and impersonal. There was nothing to mark the place as John Doe's home. It was like there was nothing to record John Doe's average life. The police interviewed John Doe's strings of ex-girlfriends. While they had nothing bad to say against John Doe, they didn't have any memorable things to say about John Doe either. When asked why the relationship ended, they said it happened naturally. John Doe was like any other guy and things were simply not meant to be.

John Doe was buried in a public plot without much fanfare. John Doe died and it didn't matter to anyone.

Was John Doe's life meaningful? It was to John Doe.

Did John Doe touch people's lives? John Doe thought he did.

Minutes before John Doe's death, his killer asked John Doe, "If you keel over and die this moment, do you think people will care?"

John Doe's answer was, "Yes, they definitely will."

Who was crueler? The killer or the world who had disappointed John Doe?

...

And finally, you who are reading this, "If you keel over and die this moment, do you think people will care?"