Boy Scouts and Honesty 

2005-07-03

I took Thursday off to go with Dad, youngest and middle sister to the hospital for Mom to have an angiogram and maybe a stent; if she needed it.

I, youngest then middle sister showed up.

Dad, sisters and I hung around in the hospital until the Doc came out.

The news was actually better than expected. Mom’s heart function was 20% better than it was a few weeks ago. And the doc put in the stent, so, with any luck, she’ll feel better soon.

So,

Went with Mom to the antique mall where we sell the stuff we buy. I spent the drive being grateful that Mom still wants to go with me. She’s a bit sore in the leg where they threaded up the stuff for angiogram and stent, but she’s up and walking.

I asked her if she wanted to go buy fireworks for the family 4th. Lucky me, they hadn’t bought them yet. There are almost no cities in our area that allow non-professional fireworks. But my parent’s town still does, so after we went and left my stuff at the antique mall we went a bought fireworks.

The guy behind the counter told us all about the stuff they were selling. These are almost all Boy Scout booths. I had a few questions. Mom picked out the assortment she wanted to buy based one the amount of money she wanted to spend. We bought a couple a few sparklers and a few snakes. Then we went back to the car.

As we were exiting the parking lot I noticed that the guy that had helped us was out there. “Oh, there they are, they’re just leaving.” I told Mom that the guys from the booth were going to stop us on the way out.

And he did. He told us that we’d overpaid. And he gave us the money we’d overpaid. He said that money is tight, for everyone.

To be perfectly honest, I’d rather have given the organization he worked for the money. But I’d rather give an honest guy the honor of being honest. No way I could take that from him.

I’m sure I can find an easy way to give the Boy Scouts money; I’m not sure how to tell an honest guy how much I appreciate his honesty, and what a good example he sets.