This is a story about something that I did and I don’t like that it’s a story about what I did because it makes me appear big. I don’t record it to make me appear big, I record it to express my sheer exasperation with other people’s dishonesty, and the fact that the world EXPECTS dishonesty from me – it has become the acceptable norm and is actively encouraged and it bothers me…a lot!
There’s this lovely girl at work who works in the canteen. She’s not been there long and she mostly just clears up after us and takes the money. But she’s not so good at taking the money. She doesn’t really know how much things cost (which, to her credit, is not really her fault – most of us customers don’t know how much things cost either!), and she doesn’t seem very good at the money handling bit.
The other day I passed her a ten pound note and she accidentally gave me back the ten pound note AND my change. She, in effect, paid me to eat at the canteen!
Now, I’ve had reason to relate this story to some of my colleagues recently, and every time people have said “I hope you kept it” or “You didn’t give it back did you?”.
Well, of course I did. I wanted to pay for my lunch. Bless her, she’s made a mistake, which I’ve noticed, and I’m not gonna have her getting into trouble because the till’s down at the end of the day because I deliberately accepted more change than I was supposed to get!
Yet, I’m made to feel belittled and silly for doing the right thing. People are astonished that I’m honest. Why is this?
I remember what the Bible says about this: “even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed”.