The Moral of the Story

Cindy Trane Christeson

“An honest man’s the noblest work of God.”

-- Alexander Pope

I treated myself to a cafe latte recently at a nearby coffeehouse. The

employees are friendly, and I enjoy chatting with them. Sometimes they

say something surprising and funny like, “Would you like anything to go

with your coffee, maybe a muffin, a scone, or an espresso machine?”

One time I was there, though, they said something surprising, but it

wasn’t funny at all. After the woman handed me my change, she looked up

and asked, “Do you know where you can buy little boxes that have some

sort of opening that lets people put money in it, but not take it out?”

“People don’t really take money out of your tip jar, do they?” I

asked.

“You’d be surprised,” she answered. “A few minutes ago there was a

dollar bill in there.” She pointed to a jar that only had coins in it.

“Sometimes people will make change, but you don’t make change by taking a

dollar bill.”

I was stunned.

“That’s not the worst of it,” she continued. “Last week, the tip box

was really full, and we were really busy. One minute the full box was

there, the next it was gone. They took it, box and all. Whatever happened

to honesty?”

I was surprised again yesterday when I went to a mailing center to

send a box. While I filled out forms, six people came in. Everybody was

cheerful, and soon they were talking with each other. Then a man walked

in and announced to all of us, “I need to buy my wife a card for Mother’s

Day and send it to her. I’ve been gone for three weeks, and I haven’t

called or written yet. Do you think I’m in trouble?”

We all looked at him simultaneously, nodded and said, “Yes” in unison.

“Well, I’ve been really busy,” he said, but he saw that we all kept

shaking our heads back and forth. “I am in trouble, aren’t I?” he asked.

This time we all nodded yes.

“Well, I thought about calling her and saying I’ve been sick.”

He saw us shake our heads again.

“I could say I thought I was having a heart attack.”

Still we shook our heads.

“We’ve been married for 32 years, and she knows I love her,” he added.

“Well, I vote for the honesty approach myself,” I said. “Then you

never have to worry about keeping your story straight.”

“Remember, honesty is the best policy,” added another woman.

“Now there’s a novel idea,” he said teasingly.

At that point, he selected a great big, colorful card, and as he

wrote, he read it for all of us to hear.

“Honey, I would have written earlier, but I’m just a big jerk.”

“There everyone, how’s that for an honest beginning?”

We all laughed. But it isn’t funny that honesty and truth can be novel

or negotiable. It was fun, however, to see that man respond to the

collective encouragement to be honest. I wonder what else he wrote.

I thought about a Bible verse that says, “The truth will set you

free.” How true that is. How freeing truth is. That’s the truth.

And you can quote me on that.

CINDY TRANE CHRISTESON is a Newport Beach resident who speaks frequently

to parenting groups. She can be reached via e-mail at [email protected]

or through the mail at P.O. Box 6140-No. 505, Newport Beach 92658.