Earthquake victims rest in tents in Jiuzhaigou on Thursday. All those in need have received shelter. ZHANG LANG/CHINA NEWS SERVICE

WHEN A MAGNITUDE 7 EARTHQUAKE hit Jiuzhaigou county in Southwest China's Sichuan province on Aug 8, Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi province, also felt the quake. In one of shopping malls in the city, many customers who were eating fled without paying for their meals, thinking an earthquake was hitting the city. Yet the next day many of them returned to pay. Thepaper.cn comments:

When an earthquake happens, it is natural for people to try and find somewhere safe. Those who failed to pay for their meals should not be blamed for that reason. Some reports say that the restaurants lost about 60,000 yuan ($9,012) in total, but that's nothing compared to losing lives if the earthquake had really struck the city.

Actually, the restaurants also showed tolerance of the deeds of the customers. In a later report, a restaurant owner is reported to have said that "he fully understood the customers" rushing away without paying.

And it is a rather heartwarming story, since over 80 percent of the customers reportedly returned to pay.

Legally speaking, when a customer chooses to dine in a restaurant, he or she has signed a service contract with the latter. Should they be forced to leave without paying for some reason, their responsibility to pay is delayed, but they still have the duty to pay.

A general review of the incident shows that no restaurant owner tried to make people pay before leaving when the earthquake happened, which shows they are aware that lives comes first. On the other hand, more than 80 percent of the customers came back to pay, which shows they are aware of their moral obligation, if not their legal responsibility.

That's the result of social progress and the promotion of the rule of law. We expect the rule of law to be more deeply rooted in society so that when similar things happen again people will show goodwill to each other.