Honesty feels good

My daughter and I had an interesting experience last night. While walking through Hollywood Video looking for anything appropriate and interesting, she found a $100 dollar bill on the ground. She said, "Mom, this was on the floor over there." I said, "Oh, well, what should we do?" She said, "I dunno, maybe give it to the worker guy." We walked to the counter and handed the bill to a very surprised video clerk, who looked at me like, "Why exactly are you giving me $100?" We explained that she had found it on the floor and the person who dropped it was probably still in the store. Then we kept looking for movies. (Final selections: The Alamo and Happy Feet -- I'll review them later.)

About five minutes later a teenage girl (17 or 18) came up to me and said, "Did you turn in a $100 bill?" I said, "Yes, my daughter did." The girl said, "Thank you so much, I can't believe you did that." Then she walked away quickly because I think she was going to cry. As I watched her, I realized how much that $100 meant a lot to her. It probably represented hard work on her part -- maybe the result of hours of babysitting jobs, or part-time minimum wage employment, or allowance for good grades, etc. She was with a friend and as they stood at the counter she kept shaking her head and saying, "I can't believe someone did that."

I turned to my daughter and said, "What you did made a difference to that girl. Thank you for being honest." I don't think she understood exactly how much money it was, but she was happy to have made someone else happy. It made me realize how good it feels to be good. If we'd have kept the $100, and figured whoever lost it was probably gone, it would have translated (dishonestly) into groceries, school lunch, maybe a toy. But the feeling that came over us when the girl thanked us was worth so much more than any of those things. That night in her prayer my daughter was thankful that she could help someone find their money. I was thankful too, because all of us --me, my daughter, and the girl-- learned the value of integrity, and that's something that's hard to find in a video store.

Oh, The Alamo was good and historically accurate (but somewhat slow with a bit of bayonet violence) and Happy Feet was...musical.