A touching, and delicious, gesture to show appreciation to everyone who sent in manga donations.

Ordinarily, being the victim of a theft means you have fewer things than you did before, and so it’s only natural to respond with anger. But in the case of Yamaguchi Prefecture hot spring Onsen no Mori, the exact opposite happened.

After 20 volumes of popular manga Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba disappeared from Onsen no Mori’s relaxation room library, the facility responded with remarkable kindness, taking to social media to kindly ask the thief to return them, saying that if he did so all would be forgiven, and they wouldn’t get the police involved. Their faith rewarded when the thief returned all of the missing manga, and also placed a letter of apology in the parcel.

▼ Onsen no Mori knows the manga are its copies, as they’re stamped with the facility’s logo.

That alone would have gotten Onsen no Mori’s manga count back to even, but while waiting for their comics’ return, they also received donations of Demon Slayer manga from fans around the country, whose combined generosity took the form of more than 200 manga volumes.

▼ Even all that is only about two thirds of the donations.

OK, so Onsen on Mori has said no hard feelings and its manga library is more robust than ever. Happy ending, right? Sure…except the feel-good happenings aren’t over yet. See, in traditional Japanese culture, there’s something called an oakeshi. It’s essentially a thank-you gift, where if someone does something nice for you, you give them a little something to show your gratitude. And since Onsen no Mori is feeling very grateful, it’s put together a very nice okaeshi for the people who donated their manga.

The okaeshi Onsen no Mori is sending contain a selection of delicious locally produced sake (including Yamaguchi’s representative brand, Iwakuni City’s Dassai), some of which appear to be adorned with Demon Slayer fan art drawn by the donors.

For those that don’t drink, there okaeshi sets also have uiro, a traditional sweet rice jelly confectionary, also made in Yamaguchi.

▼ Since we’re in autumn, there is, naturally, a chestnut-flavored uiro.

Last, but certainly not least, the okeashi includes two free passes to Onsen no Mori, so that the donor and a guest can come for a soak (and also to visit their donated manga in its new home).

▼ Mori on Onsen’s introductory video shows it also has ping-pong tables, hammocks, and ice cream, in case you needed more convincing that it’s worth a visit.

And even with all this, Onsen no Mori is still looking for more ways to make even more people feel good. Some of the manga donations it received came from anonymous owners who didn’t include their names or addresses, which obviously means that right now the hot spring can’t send them an okaeshi package. A recent tweet from its official Twitter account reads:

“To everyone who so kindly sent us donations, we are extremely grateful. We humbly ask that you allow us to send you okaeshi, and ask those of you who donated anonymously to let us know your names. Please allow us to send you these items to say thank you.”

Of course, people who make anonymous donations aren’t looking for any sort of reward, and it’s quite likely that many who didn’t initially give their names won’t be changing their minds now. Still, it’s the thought that counts, and once again Onsen no Mori is showing that treating people kindly encourages others to be kind too, until the cycle starts all over again and everyone has something to smile about.

Related: Onsen no Mori
Source: Twitter/@onsen_mori
Top image: Twitter/@onsen_mori
Insert images: Onsen no Mori (1, 2), Twitter/@onsen_mori
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