Is honesty always the best policy ?
By ronnyb
@ronnyb (6113)
Jamaica
December 29, 2011 7:18am CST
Well consider this :
You are far away from home and you just lost your bag with all the bus fare, bus pass and credit cards you have .And to make matters worse you had to walk about a mile to get to anywhere that looks like civilization well at least civilization in terms of infrastructure because behind you is a desert hotter than the surface of the sun and infront of you are some characters who seem to be ready to take the only thing you have left ...YOUR DIGNITY !!!!(Please dont force me to explain what I mean by that).Somehow you manage to escape these criminal looking characters and get to a alley and what is that you see on the ground a piece of grimy and dirty cloth folded so meticulously ,it has to be valauble ,you pick it up with eager sweaty palms and unfold it and walla ,its your exact fare to get home.
Now you are happy as lark and waiting at the bus stop happy to be away from this God-forsaken place but here comes a old lady crying her eyes out .You take one look at her and you know this piece of dirty grimy cloth is hers because they have the same kind of dirth on them (No NCIS needed ),even before she lets out that glass shattering squeal "I just lost all my pension money for the month ". But then you are temporarily distracted by the by the horns of the last stage out of town as it rolls to a stop infront of you and the driver is looking at you with the look 'I aint going to ask you if you are coming another time ' because he is eager to be far away from this place .
What would you do ? ,stick to the principle that your parents entrenched in you 'honesty is the best policy' and give back the money or do you take that money and pay for a ride out of that town
1 person likes this
9 responses
@stephcjh (38473)
• United States
30 Dec 11
Honesty is the best policy in most cases but not all. There are times when a little fib does not hurt, to save someones feelings or not lead them wrong.
@bestboy19 (5478)
• United States
30 Dec 11
I would give the money to the old lady and trust that God would supply my needs.
@shaggin (72129)
• United States
29 Dec 11
I could not ever keep that money seeing an old women obviously poor and knowing that it was her money. Honestly anytime we find something and we know it is someone elses we should not keep it. If it is not claimed and we dont know whose it is then I understand but if we really know the owner it is wrong to keep it. I would be happy to see how thankful the women was when I gave her the item that she lost.
@ronnyb (6113)
• Jamaica
29 Dec 11
Thank you for your response .Yes the sight of that old woman would have been heart rending and who knows maybe returning that money will open up doors for you .Maybe she knows someone taking a ride out of town to where you are going .Sometimes the real benefits are not seen immediately because we are only caught up in the situation at hand
@squallming (1775)
• Malaysia
29 Dec 11
In my case, I would return the money to the lady and find my own way to get home. I'm not cheating here. That's who I am, I never pick up any money from the ground and I tend to advise my girlfriend and my siblings to not do so. It doesn't matter if you intent to hand the money to the police station, or that you want to keep the money as if it's yours. This will avoid to get yourself into trouble later. 
@ronnyb (6113)
• Jamaica
29 Dec 11
Thanks for your response .Its good to know there are still good people in the world especially in light of the amount of pressure you would be under to get home .But like i said in the previous comment,sometimes a better solution occurs after we have been honest .Once again thanks for your response and dont change the way you are
@sudiptacallingu (10879)
• India
30 Dec 11
To me, discretion is the best policy; honest or not! Life has taught me this very valuable lesson which our parents or schools don’t. If I was a man, I might have returned the money but with so many criminals everywhere and me being a woman, I would not take chances…I’m being brutally honest here. So it really depends according to the situation whether I’ll be honest and foolish and risk my life & limb or whether I should make the best of a life-threatening situation.
Life really goes in circles and I believe there is God to oversee all our actions. If that money was lying then it was His will to make a passage for me to get out of that place. The money that was taken from that lady will be returned to her by some other means or it was in her destiny to lose that money or to face that particular distressing situation. Similarly, I too will have to return that money to somebody someday thus repaying my debt.
@savak03 (6684)
• United States
1 Jan 12
Sometimes a windfall that you find on the ground is a gift from God, but sometimes it is not. If the woman had not come up and made it obvious that the money you found was hers I would have said keep it. But since she did appear your conscience raised this issue. This money represented one trip out of town for you but for her it was her whole means of living for the entire month. She could possibly lose her place to live and have to go hungry an entire month just so you could get a bus ride home. I'm sure you did the right thing.
@Bamboee (645)
• United Arab Emirates
29 Dec 11
well I would give the money back to the old lady. Explain her my situation, ask her for some help and assure her that I will return her favor back. If she agrees then I will ask God to bless her, if she does not I will still be thankful to God because I did not end up using some old lady's pension money - that would be a sin. I know sometimes we are in a situation where we see ourselves alone, cant help it. Everybody adores their life and they do not want to be harmed in any possible way. But I believe if you let the matters rest in God's hands then everything will be alright. Its better to die a honest life, than to live a life of cheat and lie.
That is what I believe in.
