Why Would Anyone DoThat?

It was the night of December something, 2008, and a group of us were trying to get home from 42nd street around 7:00 pm. It was cold. We counted at least four Monsey buses go by. When we called the company, we were told that the buses were stuck around 62nd street. There was something wrong. Bus after bus goes by and then around 8:20, we were rescued by a Monsey Bus. The suspicion was voiced that the bus company had booked a charter at the last minute and had let its regular passengers freeze their tails off.

While we were waiting, we started to recount stories about -- well, you know -- the Monsey Bus. The best by far was the following. (The teller assures us he witnessed this all.)

It seems that on an evening trip to Monsey originating in Manhattan, one of our co-religionists was talking on the cell phone. Perhaps he was a bit too loud. His neighbor was trying to get some sleep. After some sshhh-ing from Sleepy and back-talk from the cell phone abuser, the would-be sleeper takes matters into his own hands and punches the talker in the snout.
"Stop the bus! Stop the bus!" cries the offended cell phone guy. He demands the police be called.
The driver speeds on. People are tired, he wants to get back.
The punchee insists, "Call the police! I demand you call the police!" Driver continues into the night. Meanwhile, the cell phone guy is sitting next to his attacker, who has pulled his hat down and is (pretending to be?) asleep.
Thereupon, the one who was punched runs up to the driver and, seizing the wheel, he forcibly steers the bus off to the shoulder of the road, while it is going full tilt. The driver sensibly brings the bus to a halt.
There follows much back and forth about whether to call the police, where they should meet the bus, and who is in the right. It is there and then decided that the driver will call the police, ask them to meet the bus at Pathmark, so the victim can report the crime, and the passengers who never signed on for this drama can go home.
The bus continues. But then a man stands up and delivers an impassioned speech about the way a yid is supposed to behave. He explains that he served in the Army in Israel, where he saw is brothers bleed to death. A Jew is not supposed to hit another Jew, we are a spiritual people and the hope of the world, but of course, you have had a long day and are tired from the struggle for parnassah. Meanwhile the speaker empathises with the cell phone man who must also be struggling to make ends meet. The speaker appelas for peace and reconciliation. And then he observes that he himself struggles for parnassah: he is a fund raiser for an organization in Israel; things are not going well; his efforts today have also come to little. But he urges us all to better things.
And so it comes to pass that the victim of the assault asserts that if his attacker will make a contribution to the fund-raiser's yeshiva/kollel/cause in Israel, then he will drop the charges. The assailant -- who has feigned sleep throughout this improbable tale -- rouses himself and produces his checkbook; he writes a very respectable-sized check, many multiples of chai.
Now the cell phone guy whips out his checkbook and he writes a check to the same institution for a goodly sum.
The two men, just recently fierce enemies, now shake hands.
The entire bus bursts into applause.
The man who told me the story leans into the bus driver, and the driver says to him under his breath: "Do you believe this s__t."