A couple of days ago, a New York teenager was murdered when he resisted a pack of young thugs who wanted to steal his iPod. In the ensuing scuffle, he was stabbed twice in the chest and died.

Yesterday, the boy’s father received a telephone call from Steve Jobs, the head of Apple, who wanted to offer his sympathies.

In part because a good friend of mine was just mugged on the subway in Times Square, I’m fascinated and a little moved by this episode. Apple’s lawyers and PR people couldn’t have recommended that Jobs call the grieving parent; no point in further associating your company with a horrific crime.

So Jobs could only have called because…well, because he has a heart. (If you need anything at all, Jobs reportedly told the boy’s father, call me.) That’s something we don’t expect from our chief executives—and often, in our macho business culture, something we don’t even value.

There are, of course, plenty of stories to the effect that Jobs is a megalomaniac and a jerk, at least when it comes to business. But as far as I’m concerned, the man just showed a lot of class.