There was lotto fever in my city last week. With the jackpot, everyone was buying tickets. There were work pools and group buys.
My hubby’s coworker wanted to go in with him on some tickets (a smart move as he was buying quite a few tickets and she only paid for one). When he bought the tickets, she asked him “How will I know you won’t skip town if you win?” My hubby laughed, thinking she was joking. She wasn’t. And the reason she asked the question was because she would be seriously tempted to claim the entire prize for herself if she won.
The hubby and I don’t play that way. You may think it is because we now have ‘enough’ but no, we’ve never played that way.
You see, when I was 12 years old, I was a kindergarten helper. I’d help the teacher with the young kids during recess and lunch hour. Every year, parents would donate their used holiday cards so kids could do arts and crafts with them (collages and such). My job, one recess, was to separate the front (with the picture) from the back (with people’s signatures and personal messages). I was a horse freak and there was this one card with a horse on it.
I wanted that card. Badly.
Looking back, I should have asked to have that card. It was a used card, for goodness sakes! But then, I was afraid the teacher would say no. And I REALLY wanted that card.
So I stole it. I hid it in my jacket, took it home, and kept it under my bed. For years, the card was there, a constant symbol of the bad, bad thing I had done. I finally destroyed it, hoping the guilt would leave with it. It didn’t. To this day, I feel guilty.
I learned a lasting lesson with that used card. Nothing, nothing in life is worth compromising your morals for. If you believe stealing is wrong, a million dollars won’t make that guilt go away.
BTW… the hubby will never buy a lotto ticket with that coworker again and he will think twice about working with her on projects.