“Reuven heard and he saved him from their hands” (Bereishis 37:21).
In contrast to the other brothers who didn’t feel there was any sin involved in the sale of Yosef we can learn from Reuven who didn’t take part in the sale. This was the same Reuven who’d been a king among the brothers and whose position had been displaced by Yosef.
When the brothers decided to kill Yosef what would anyone else have done in Reuven’s position? Reuven had every justification to be angry at Yosef and even if he’d remained passive and not participated in the sale it would have been righteous of him. Yet the Torah says Reuven actively did something “to save him from their hands to return him to his father.”
…. Once he had been the bechor and the leader of the household. Anyone else in Reuven’s place would have left it to someone else to make the effort to save Yosef. But Reuven did not act out of a desire for honor. He acted because there was no one else to do it. Even though he had lost his status [because of Yosef] he rose to the occasion and helped them. That is what it means to be one of the shevatim.
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