Honesty Is the Best Policy

My nephew’s birthday is today. Happy Birthday Devin!! 

Yesterday, knowing I really needed to get his card in the mail early if it had any chance of getting from SLO to Atascadero in time, I took my federally-mandated work break at about 10  o'clock and hot-footed it over to the post office.  I knew they had greeting cards in there so I figured I’d just grab one and drop it right in the P.O. collection slot.

Alas, there was already a line of about 12 people when I got there! Crap, no way was I going to have time to wait for that line to move and still get back to work on time. 

Hmmmm…what to do? What to do?

I went over to one of the tables used for addressing labels and packages and scribbled down a message inside the card and wrote out Devin’s address.  And then it occurred to me, standing there, off to the side, no one looking, that I could just mail the card and walk out. I could come back and pay later!  Genius idea!  So I put a stamp on the envelope, dropped it in the slot and walked right out, into the clear blue sky, unscathed and undetected, clean as a whistle.

Went back today to pay.  My initial thought was to come clean, explain what happened yesterday and then take my lumps and pay the fare.  But couldn’t I just as easily grab a new card, pay for it and then place it back on the rack?  Same diff, right?  Not exactly. when I approached to pay for the new card, the lady behind the counter looked up and said, “Just this card?”

“Yes,” I replied. “Only the card.”

“Well, today’s your lucky day!”

“Oh really?” I asked.

“Yep, today only, all cards are 50% off!”

“Well now,” I said, smiling, “That is lucky, isn’t it?”

And so the moral of the story?  Clearly, honesty is the best policy.