Statute of limitations

The statute of limitations is like a game of hide and seek. You know how when you play hide and seek, you have to run and hide before the person who's seeking can count to ten? Well, just like counting to ten, the statute of limitations is like a timer that starts counting down from the moment something bad happens.

Let's say someone breaks a window. The timer starts ticking as soon as that happens. Now, if the person who broke the window doesn't get caught within a certain amount of time (like, say, 6 months), then they can't be punished for what they did. It's like they've won the game of hide and seek because they were able to hide long enough that they couldn't be found anymore.

This timer is called the statute of limitations. It's a law that says how much time can pass before you can't be held responsible for something bad that you did. The idea behind it is that as time goes by, it gets harder to prove what happened or find the person who did it. So if too much time passes, then it's not fair to punish the person who broke the window because they might not even remember doing it.

Different things have different statutes of limitations. For example, if someone steals your bike, the statute of limitations might be one year. But if someone commits murder, the statute of limitations might be forever. That means there's no time limit on when they can be punished for what they did.

Overall, the statute of limitations is like a timer that counts down how long someone can be held responsible for something bad that they did. It's different for different things, and once the timer runs out, it's like the person who did it won the game of hide and seek because they can't be caught anymore.