Karma

This morning at work I was patting down pants that had come in yesterday for today's load.  I felt folded paper in one pair of khaki pants.  I tossed it on my spotting board and realized it was a bank envelope and a rebate check of some kind.

I opened the envelope and quickly thumbed through the hundreds and fifties to count $950.  For the purposes of this story, $950 will herein be referred to as ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS.

Understand one thing:  I am generally an honest person.  I don't lie because I learned early on in life that I"m terrible at it and I feel guilty for years over it.  I'm also usually very sympathetic to others' situations.  With that said, I now had a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted.  But it only lasted about a minuet.  I knew I couldn't keep that money.  I took it upstairs to my boss and told him what was in the We Always Check Your Pockets envelope.  I didn't want it to get lost or taken by another employee.  Not to say that one of my coworkers would take it, but anyone can easily tempted by ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS. 

After I came back downstairs, I honestly thought I might puke all over the floor.  I felt downright sick!  I mean, I gave away ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!!  What kind of a careless moron leaves that kind of wad in their pocket and doesn't even call the store about it???!!!

Later that morning, I learned the woman was really nonchalant about it which made me reconsider what I had done.  "I shoulda kept it!" I laughed.  Allan, the boss had told me that he specifically gave her my name (though she didn't ask for me) and if she didn't reward me, that I should let him know.  He wanted to give me a little something if she didn't.  I argued and he cut me off saying that "No good deed goes unrewarded," or something like that.

The woman told the clerk that gave her the envelope that she would come back later and leave some money for me.  OK, here's Patti's take on this, "She had $950 in cash, why not leave her something now?  Why come back later?"  Of course I blew it off, not expecting the woman to come back except to pick up her clean clothes.  I didn't do this for a reward, otherwise I would have just kept the whole wad.  You get what I'm saying.  And I didn't do this so I could brag about what a great person I am because ALL DAY I've been debating with myself that I should have just stuffed in the dryer vent for later.  If the lady never came back--I didn't know a darn thing.  If she did--OH!  Look!  There it is, in the dryer!

Of course all that is against my nature.  It's just not me at all.  And pretending something like that would be lying and whenever I lie, a neon billboard lights up on my forehead and flashes I'M LYING.

So, I don't really expect the woman to come back with anything and I'm not telling Allan anything either.  The clerks can do that so I won't even have to get involved.  I think the reason Allan wants to step up is because it's good for business.  Suppose this woman goes around telling everyone how honest we are about what we find in the pockets.  I don't want any extra hours, though.  HA HA!

"It'll come back to you," one coworker said to me.  I've heard it said that what you give up will come back to you ten fold.  I'm waiting for ten grand to just fall out of the sky at any moment now.

So that was my day.  I found ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS.
And I gave it back.


UPDATE/EDIT

This morning I came in to find an envelope at my station with $50 inside.  How cool is that?  I mean, after giving up ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS everything began to look like money.  Every clothing care label, every green leaf that blew in the door, every wadded up receipt.....  And from what I've heard, this lady (or at least her husband) has more money than most of us.

My boss gave me a little something too; going back to that customer service thing I guess.  I *almost* felt the back of my eyes sting.  It was the gesture that meant so much to me, really.  The money came at a great time, a much needed time and I really am glad I did the right thing.  Telling the story to Shawn I joked, "I don't know if you'll be mad at me or proud of me...." 
HA HA!