To be harsh or not?

We may find ourselves in a position such that we are required to mete punishment to someone for his wrongdoing. This may be a child, a relative, friend etc. Due to the person being young, or related, or close, we may go down soft on them. However, in certain cases, the manner in which we deal with them may have disastrous consequences for the wrongdoer as well as the wronged. In the Mahabharata, Jayadratha the king of Sindhu and brother-in-law of Duryodhana wrongs Draupadi and the Pandavas by abducting Draupadi in the Pandavas absence. Yudhisthira and Draupadi go lenient on him by insulting him (shaving off his dead) but not injuring or killing him. Yudhisthira was under the impression that the insult would make him realize his mistake and he would refrain from repeating such acts. He also did not want to harm him since he was a relative.

On one hand, the pandavas swore to kill Duryodhana, Dusshasana and Karna for their insults to Draupadi and on the other, they let go of Jayadratha who abducted her with the intention to dishonour her and steal her from the Pandavas by force. However the result of the Pandavas decision to let Jayadratha go after insulting him was that Jayadratha felt greviously humiliated and vowed revenge on the Pandavas. He sought a boon from Lord Shiva to hold the Pandavas at bay in battle for one day. He used this boon on the thirteenth day of battle when Arjuna was away and Abhimanyu entered the Chakravyuha. He prevented the Pandavas from following Abhimanyu and left him alone and defenceless inside to be killed by the Kaurava warriors. Thus, Yudhishthira's lenient manner of dispensing justice led to the death of his nephew. Eventually Jayadratha is anyway killed by Arjuna in battle with great difficulty. If Krishna would have not intervened to help his dear friend, Arjuna would have had to self-immolate due to his inability to kill Jayadratha.