Doing the right thing - Integrity
Never pass up the opportunity to do the right thing.
If you receive too much change, give it back. If, by accident, you are not charged for something that you purchased, ask to be charged.
If you find out that something you have is actually stolen,
return it to the owner.
Your integrity is worth so much more than anyone else’s misfortune. By doing the right thing, you will feel great, and you will instantly let someone else know that there are still truly honest people in the world today.
I know that most people already do the right thing in these situations, but some people don't realize that it's wrong. If a cashier or waiter/waitress makes a mistake and gives too much change, they will be responsible to pay the difference at the end of their shift. It was an accident, and you never know how much they need the money that they earned that day. A simple act of honesty or not could mean the difference in their hope or not.
By being honest, you may encourage them at their lowest point to just keep going one more day. You just never know.
Doing the right thing requires integrity. If you don't know something is wrong and you're doing it, it's not your fault. But the moment you realize it's wrong, you have to change, and undo what you can...even if it's difficult to make things right.
Sometimes people try to pretend like they still don't know. They may say, "Well I didn't know it was wrong when I started doing it!" They don't want to do things any differently, and fail to see that although there was a time that they were making an innocent mistake, that changed the moment they found out.
From that point on, they had to do things differently, or be just as guilty as if they knew all along. Deliberate intent is key. Innocence is when someone makes a mistake or does things wrong without knowing it, but once they are aware, if they continue, then they are doing something wrong with deliberate intent. Once they know better, pretending they still don't know better is a lie, and is not an option for an honest way of living, inner peace, and a clear conscience.
-Doe Zantamata
Author of
How true! Thank you for the reminder of the age old lesson: do right!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Doe for this great post!!
ReplyDeleteI had a discussion not long ago with my children about that. I was explaining to them the subject, and i also used the example of the waitress who will have her salary deducted for a mistake. It happened because they were frustrated from the "lack of gratitude" of the person I gave money back to because she gave me too much change. That person didn't even say thank you. I explained that its not other's gratitude that is important although it is nice to have it, but it's our own gratitude towards ourselves, knowing that we did the right thing and be proud of what we did.
I remember when my son was about ten or twelve, he was in a supermarket with his friend and the friends parents when he found a purse on the floor with quite a lot of money in it.
ReplyDeleteHe immediately went to hand it in but was discouraged from doing so by the friend AND his friends parents who said they should keep the money! He was, however insistent and handed the purse in where it was reunited with its overjoyed owner. We were so proud of him for doing that, especially as it was just a few days before christmas, and who knows what a negative impact that could've had on that woman and her family? As for the other boy and his parents, our son was criticised by them for doing the right thing, but he stuck to his principles and needless to say didn't have much to do with them after that!