Diogenes would be proud !

                    Diogenes would be proud!

      Most of us run the financial gauntlet daily. Our eyes are on the lookout for rascals and charlatans in our daily commerce. Sometimes you begin to wonder what happened to the values that were instilled in us as youngsters. Truth, honesty and decency were drilled into us as children, by hard working parents who had lived their lives by a code of working person’s honor, that would do credit to the chivalric Knight.

    On this bright sunny morning we drove into a Classic Car Wash in Estero, Florida. The ride South from Buffalo had made the car a scatter of squashed bugs and the other detritus of hard travel. We liked coming to this business. The employees were all Hispanics. They worked very hard to please their customers. None were apparently people of means and they toiled hard all day in the hot Florida sun.

     When our vehicle was finished we were pleased. It sparkled in the morning sun. It was after we got into the car, that we got another surprise. One of the workers had apparently found a $20 Bill. It must have fallen from a pocket or purse. They didn’t say anything to us, just left the bill in a driver’s well.

      These are the values we had been taught as children. We were delighted to see it evidenced by in these hard-working future Americans. The good Lord knows that a $20 windfall, amongst people who have next to nothing, would have been a sizeable bonus. Yet, integrity and modesty enabled them simply to place the bill where we would find it.

     This kind of honesty deserves a reward. We talked to the business supervisor, complimenting the employee and said we wanted to split the newly found Twenty Dollars with the staff. The manager said that they had a policy of sharing the wealth. Our receipt told her who had made the find. She summoned the worker. We thanked the esteemed person for their decency and gave them $10.

     We left the car wash feeling lighter in our souls. Hard working people, who had little in life but their integrity, and shown us that people do indeed have the same values that we were taught as children. After this, whenever we return to this car wash, we will also be leaving a little more in the employee’s tip jar than before. Decency, hard work and integrity needs to be rewarded.

      Muchas Gracias mi amigos. Some decent, hardworking parents had brought you up the right way.

                                 -30-

                           (428 words)

                      Joseph Xavier Martin