When I was about 8 years old, I was shopping with my mom at the mall when I spotted a wallet on the floor. My mother taught the very important honesty lesson as we found the owner of the wallet right away as we thumbed through the wallet. When we called the lady, she thanked us and in return gave me an Asian cooking plate. At the time, I was thinking, "dumb." Well, it didn't take long to figure out that it wasn't about the gift in return but the important lesson I learned about honesty .
A couple of days ago I was at Roberts with my 2 hudlums and running from here to there to catch up with Haley's helpful hands and spotted a $5 bill. Without hesitation I picked it up, looked around and brought it to customer service. They gave me the polite thank you and put it under the counter. Now, if you lost $5, would you be searching everywhere for it and go ask customer service for your lost bill? In the end I'm sure, Roberts will make $5 for the end of the year Christmas party. But, what if I wouldn't have returned it? Would I have failed at my mom's hard work of the honesty lesson?
Yesterday I was at the post office with both children again and realized after I had gotten the kids all strapped in the car that I had not been charged for a book of stamps. My first instinct was to pay next time when I come so I don't have to get kids out. My next thought was the fact that the guy's till would be off today and to go in and pay it now. I found a closer parking spot and caught him as he was just closing his station down. I again was thanked and I went on my merry way.
I didn't want this blog to sound like I'm trying to pat myself on the back but I hope someday when I'm in need of a very honest person, I can receive the same treatment in return. How sometimes we don't get a huge pat on the back but our actions of honesty every day can affect other lives too.
What kinds of run ins have you had with getting charged too little for something or finding something that you knew wasn't yours?
6 comments:
Just last month I went to Build-a-Bear for Christmas shopping and didn't realize until I was putting the receipt info in the computer that I didn't get charged for an $18.00 bear. The evil side of me thought--"Hey, now I can spend more money for Anna for Christmas." ( I felt severely limited in my Christmas budget!) But the good side of me won, and I drove 15 minutes to the mall to take it back, and they were nice and took $5.00 off.
Just so you know "chain reader" is me, Shelley! I had to think of a book related display name for all of the reading blogs I post on! (I didn't want you thinking some weirdo reading your blog)
Thanks for sharing, Susan. Tax time is approaching, and this reminds me not to call dishonesty an "aggressive business deduction." Honesty is truly a lifelong pursuit -- we need to always be on our guard and stories like this help us to do so.
At the Children's Place they had a buy one get one half off sale the other day. I purchased some items and when I got home I realized they had given me a shirt for FREE instead of half off. So I went back to the store and the YOUNG GIRL working there looked at me like I was some sort off weirdo for asking her to charge me the right amount. But the assistant-manager was SURPRISE and thanked me and she gave me a 15% discount on my receipt and credited the difference
in my account for being honest.
Ethan found a $20 bill. Since we never definitely figured out where it came from, we decided to go buy some LEGO Bionicles to put in the Christmas toy bin at church. Ethan seemed satisfied with that solution. I like to think that--good or bad--what goes around comes around. I know Heavenly Father blesses us for our choosing the right.
Great story Susan. It is so true! We just had a family night on this and something that Jake did at Chuck e Cheese that I have been meaning to post on the blog....Maybe I will and you can read it.
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