Overwhelmed with excitement, my mind immediately started racing, full of thoughts on how suddenly I can pay off all these bills that had me in debt. I smiled from ear to ear, thinking of what it would be like to be debt free, A brand new start is all I can imagine. However something was not letting me enjoy the moment. I kept hearing a voice in my head that kept repeating, “honesty is the best policy”. After attempting to ignore the voice; I turned to my co-worker to show him what I had in hand. After snapping out of his quick minute shock, he immediately said, ” We must do the right thing and return it, It will pay off, because honesty is the best policy” It was another day in the office as many would say. Although our job was as far from office work as can be, that is the way we referred to our work, John and I were to perform a home cleanout.
When I say a home cleanout, I don‘tjust mean your basic sweep, mop and wipe, we were actually going to empty out all the items from the house and prep the house for a sale We knew we were in for a long day. The client for this job was named Nick, Both of his parents had passed away this year and Nick was the estate trustee. Nick had a wife, kids and a home of his own, so he had no plans on moving in, and living in the house that his parents had left him. Nick had called, and hired our company to do a complete home cleanout for him. He wanted to trash every item in the house. He claimed that he had already gone through the house, and took what he really wanted. His only request was that we carefully look through things before throwing them out, and that if we found any pictures of his parents or family members, to please put them aside and save them for him.
When we arrived at the house, we quickly noticed that the house was built in the eighteen hundreds, Upon entering, we noticed stacks and stacks of clothing, books, and a collection of antiques. I wouldn’t have assumed they were hoarders but they were pretty close to it I thought. Immediately we started removing all of the larger items, All of the furniture, kitchen items, picture frames, and anything that we felt we would not need to look through for pictures. It took us about a total of five hours to do all of that. After we were left with a ton of books, folders and paperwork to go through. John and I had decided that we would take a break and grab a quick bite to eat before resuming the search for pictures and personal items. When we returned to work after lunch, we decided to begin in the office room, since it contained the most books, envelopes and paperwork. We went to opposite sides of the office and began looking through items.
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My side of the room contained a file cabinet, a computer desk and a bookshelf. I quickly looked through the computer desk, as there were no hidden items, just a couple of picture frames, which I put aside for the chem Next I looked through the bookshelf. The bookshelf contained about five shelves that was full of books. I looked through the first two shelves, picking up books, flickering through the pages and shaking the book to see if any pictures would fall out, When I got to the third shelf, I noticed a big, bulky Bible. I picked it up and began to shake it as I let half the book hang, at which point two envelopes fell out of the Bible. I bent over, picked up the envelopes, and opened one up to check for pictures.
When I opened the first one, all I can see was green. My eyes were in shock the amount of money in the envelope was not known, but I did see three bands around stacks that read One thousand each. I then opened the second envelope and saw what looked like to be the same amount that was in the first envelope. I thought to myself “Wow, all this money would really allow me to pay off some bills and get out of this debt”, I was behind on some credit card bills, and on my car payments. Then I heard a small voice in my head say, “Honesty is the best policy. After pondering for a minute about what to do, I turned to John and said, “John look at what I just found”, as I held the money in both hands With his eyes wide open, he stood silent for a moment, and then he said, “we must do the right thing and return it It will pay off, because honesty is the best policy‘K It was a confirmation to the voice I heard that I did not want to hear again I answered and said.
“Yes, you are right, we need to call the client and let him know that we have found this money. Hopefully he will split it with us”, “I highly doubt that”, replied Johni We then sat down and started to count the money. It amounted to be a total of eight thousand dollars, We were so tempted to keep some, but against our temptation, we called Nick and told him that we had found two envelopes containing a total of eight thousand dollars, He could not believe what he was hearing, and said, “I really appreciate your honesty I know that not everyone would have returned that money”, He stated that he would be leaving work and heading over to come and pick up the money We said “Okay, see you shortly”. When Nick arrived, he walked in smiling at us and thanking us for calling him. He immediately began telling us how in shock he was when we called him with the news.
I then explained to him when, and how I came across the money. I even went as far as telling him how tempted I was to keep the money due to the amount of debt I was in, but that I had fought off my temptation and opted to call him, He replied, “You are a good man, I’m glad you did the right thing”. He then proceeded to ask me why I was in debt. I explained to him that I was out of work for almost six months and during that time I was living off my credit cards and had fallen behind on my car payment. He then told me that he was really into fixing cars, and asked me when and where did I buy my car. After I answered him he said “Thanks guys, I appreciate what you have done. I have to get back to work now, but I will be in touch”, and he walked off eight thousand dollars richer. We thought “Wow, he didn‘t even offer us twenty dollars for dinner.
The next day was payday at work It just so happened to be my day off as well, I figured I would go pick up my check and take the day to run some errands and pay some bills. So after picking up my check and cashing it, my next stop was the car dealership to make a payment on my back balancei As I walked in, a salesman greeted me, I explained that I was there to make a payment. He said “follow me, I can take care of that payment process for you’fl We sat and he asked me for my information so that he can look it up. After entering the information, he said “you are really early on your payment this month”, [thought to myself, “this guy is really sarcastic”, and then I replied “you mean really late, huh”. He said “no, really early”.
He said hold on let me check something There was a long silent pause as he checked, He then said, “Looks like according to the notes here, a gentlemen named Nick came in this morning and made a four thousand dollar payment towards your account, That payment got you caught up and actually put you six months ahead on your payment. So you are all set for the next six months‘K I smiled in shock and said, “Thank you as I got up and walked off really happy”, Some may argue that honesty is not the best policy but since my experience I beg to differ. I truly believe when you are honest, you will be rewarded someway, somehowi In my case it was the same reward I was hoping fori Not only did I get the reward I was hoping for but I also got to walk away with my integrity and a clean conscience Not to mention a debt free car bill.
