The Importance Of Honesty

Greetings and salutations!

I don't really have updates or anything like that, but I thought I'd share a story of something that happened recently.

Last night, Nick and I went out to the local Chinese buffet. We hadn't been there in a year or so and I was craving Chinese food, so, why not, right? So we got seated and consumed tons of the yummy chicken, fish, and other assorted goods. At the end when we were paying, I noticed a problem with our bill. Now, our total came to $29.37 (not including tip) and there was only $2.37 cents on our receipt. Obviously this was a mistake. At first, Nick thought his card was declined or something, but he checked his bank account and found that he was only charged $2.37. Huh.

Now, I knew what the average person would probably do in this situation, but more importantly, I also knew what I had to do. I took our receipt up to the front desk and explained to them that there was some kind of mistake because we weren't charged the proper amount. The lady explained that she had made a mistake because they swipe the card and input the amount to charge on a machine. When we got charged "2.37" it was because she forgot to add the "9" to make it 29.37" as it was supposed to be. She did the difference and charged the correct amount.

The lady at the front desk, the manager, and our waitress thanked us multiple times for being honest and not taking advantage of a mistake. And while I didn't get the super cheap dinner that I would have, I got the satisfaction of knowing that I did the right thing and that by doing the right thing, it made people happy. And that's what matters.

Honesty is very important to me. I truly believe that honesty is its own reward. And because it comes so natural to me, it really makes me upset to think about how many people would have just paid the two dollars and walked out without a second thought. When I was much younger and my friends would do little things like: steal money from their parents, shoplift from stores, cheat on their homework, and other types of things like that, they'd always make fun of me because I didn't see the point of it. I have never seen the point of lying, cheating, or stealing. I have a "bad" habit of putting myself in someone else's shoes. And because of that, I couldn't help but think of the repercussions of those kinds of actions. Like if Nick and I were to walk out without paying the correct amount and the restaurant figured it out, it wouldn't hurt us - it would hurt our nice waitress. She could have lost a chunk of her paycheck or even been fired. And for what? For us to have a free dinner? It wouldn't be worth it.

I think the one thing a majority of the world could benefit from is learning to have more empathy. I think it would make the world a better place. Honesty is a start, but better empathy skills will make for a perfect finish.

I hope you enjoyed my random story!


As always, Lots of Love and Applesauce. <3