While at work today (I drive for a living; so I'm all over the county) I happened to glance down and notice a folded white piece of paper on snow-covered road. It appears to be just any old piece of litter, but on closer inspection I notice that it is wrapped around what most of us would call "mullah". Well, I pick it up and toss it onto the console for later inspection; as I've got some driving to do. I'm wondering how much money is there...
When I have a minute I unfold the treasure and lo and behold there is a whole three dollars...wrapped in a bank withdrawal slip. Hmm.
Now, it's not like I don't have three dollars at my immediate disposal and that whoever lost this money may very well be more hard up for cash than I am. So then and there I decide that it's the right thing to do to return it if I can.
The bank withdrawal slip has the account holders name, date of withdrawal and bank name (of course). Lucky them :P
So, I'm driving around for a good part of the day until I can finally stop into the branch office and drop this money off. In the meantime a thought occurred to me: "I betcha the teller is going to say something like: 'God will bless you for this'".
There is no two ways about it now! I absolutely had to turn this money in just to hear what the teller would say.
I get to the branch office and walk in (one teller...it's a small town) but there is one other customer in line before me. So I wait and am figuratively tapping my foot as I need to get going onto my route. It's my turn in the queue and I walk up and explain why I am there. At first she was a bit perplexed, as I'm sure she doesn't get many people in there returning lost money. After that we get to chatting about the lost money and I explain that I really don't have any use for a measly three dollars that I don't already have available for myself, etc. And she goes on to say something to the effect that "Well, if it were fifty-thousand that might be a different story!" and I nonchalantly concur because I need to get moving...let's cut the chit-chat lady! I need to go!
Then she notices my name tag (I have an ID tag dangling from my coat collar) and wants to write my information down. Jeez! I'm pressed for time. And I honestly don't need recognition for this (though it's kinda cool to think about anyway; but it's not something I would dwell on). So she takes down my name and the company I work for (which, as an after thought, was probably a bonus as it will get reported to my supervisors...not that i care all that much for MY prestige...but that I did the right thing representing the agency. The place I work for means a great deal to me and it's reputation).
Anyway. I'm just about done with the teller and sure enough...
"God will reward you for this!" *ugh*
Jebus! I wanted to counter with something but I figured I would leave well enough alone.
What I wanted to say was something to the effect of "I don't need God to do the right thing."
In hindsight I really wanted to let this person know that a non-believer could "do the right thing" without any moral imperative from a god. To at least let this person know that there are people out there who don't believe in a god who really do have moral principles.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Finders Keepers?
2009-01-21T15:49:00-08:00
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