I was really happy the evening I received my first two S$50 note! S$100 is quite a princely sum. I walked over to the "mamak shop" and bought myself an ice-cream and the shop keeper gave me my S$49 change.
I walked home that night as it was only two bus-stop away and I was enjoying my ice-cream.
My mum starts work at 7 AM as she works as a hotel chambermaid and wakes me up as she leaves so I have time to prepare for school. As I was leaving our flat, I couldn't find my wallet! Oh no! My bus-pass, IC and more importantly -- my S$99 were in the wallet! I'm quite muddle-headed and tend to misplace things, but the pang of loss was intensely felt that morning.
And I left for school with a heavy heart thinking about the cost of replacement of lost documents, and I couldn't bear to make my parents bear additional and unnecessary cost.
When I came home in the afternoon, I bumped into a neighbour and he asked if I lost my wallet, I said "Yes!" and he said a bus driver came by our home to return my wallet, since no one was home he said he'll come by in the evening!
And he came back. My dad offered him a reward but he said "No need, just greet me at the bus interchange whenever you see me."
That lesson reinforced what my parents and my teacher has been teaching about honesty and integrity. And from then onwards, I would return wallets/purses that I pick up.
>>>end of this story<<<<
We were on a holiday in Nice, France back in 2000 and went for an evening walk before dinner. As we were crossing the road from our hotel to the seaside, I noticed a wallet on the floor. Instinctively, I picked it up. There were lose change and notes in the wallet, a scrap piece of paper with name and phone number and no other ID. So I held onto the wallet, planning to return to the hotel and ask for assistance to locate the owner.
We had a good hour of walk, as we returned to the hotel we decided to stop by a fruit shop to buy some fruits. We picked out what we wanted and I walked in to pay. The total was a small sum and I didn't have small change, immediately I thought about the lose change in the wallet I found, but decided very quickly it doesn't belong to me. So I apologized to the shop keeper that I don't have small change.
At that moment, a teenager behind the cashier's counter pointed to the small wallet in my hand, and I shook my head -- trying to tell her I don't have small change and this wallet doesn't belong to me. Then the lady spoke to her in French and turned to me and asked me if I found the wallet. To which I nodded and she smiled and said the wallet belongs to the teenager!
I was thinking WOW!!! imagine I didn't learn the lesson from my bus driver, and my conscience didn't prick me. I would have tried to pay with somebody else's money and be caught! (blush).
It always pay to be honest and truthful. And I will always remember the lesson from My Bus Driver.
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