The Day I Learnt About Honesty

It was winter, January 1982, Cleveland Ohio.  I was at Euclid Avenue waiting for a bus take to take me to downtown.  When the bus stopped, i boarded the bus through the rear door.  We were supposed to pay for the ride by putting the money in the coin box beside the driver on our way out when we reached our destination.  There's two types of coin box, one with the electronic counter and the other was just a plain glass box.  The first one will give out a sound whenever you put enough money in it and the other will totally depend on the driver to watch it.  This bus came with the second type, the clear glass box.

Being 17 at that time, i thought i wanted to save some money by not paying in full and i didn't think the driver will ever notice it.  The full fare was just sixty cents but still, i didn't want to pay in full.

Then it was time for me to get down from the bus.  I passed the coin box and put in forty cents and hurried down.  When i was out of the bus, i needed to wait for the bus to move on before i could cross the street.  While waiting, i took a look at the driver, just want to check if he noticed what i did.  To my surprise, that driver look at me straight in the eyes.  He just stared at me.  That means he knew what i did.  I was restless.  He kept on staring at me until he drove away.

From that moment, i promised myself that i would be honest in whatever i do, no matter where i am  and no matter if there is anybody looking at me or not.

Then i realized that there were a lot of Islamic values in this american community.  People were ( and still are i guess) basically very honest and hygienic.  Newspaper were sold in a box where you need to  put some coin to open it.  And i saw some of my friends who only pay for one newspapers but took one each after they opened the box.  

One day I was at ATM machine and try get a US100 from the machine. It only came out US50. I went to the bank and complained about it.  The teller apologized to me and immediately gave me US50.  She trusted me. There's no form to sign or no letter to write.  If that happened in Malaysia, you may not get your money at all.

Five years in the United States taught me a lot.