Honesty. When does it pay off?

Really. When?

When I was 4 yrs old, my mom took me to a fabric store with her in our bustling little hometown in Puerto Rico. I have always been fascinated by these little string things...well mostly how the color palette is so nice and blended in the rack:

So, I'd just stand in front of them mesmerized while mom picked out her loot. I didn't know what they were for, I just knew I needed to have them all! Every color! So, on this particular occasion, right as my mom was paying for her things, I swiped two of these (one in red/orange and one in aqua blue) and slid them in my pocket. I just wanted to take them home to play with them. How? I dunno, but no one seemed to even notice. I walked out of there with a bounce in my step, with my secret treasure and holding mom's hand. About 2 blocks from the store, I decided to pull my new toys out to play with them while we waited for the taxi ride back home. *SMACK!* The back of my head was throbbing and my mom kept yelling at me asking where I had gotten that. "Did you steal those from the store, Yaritza?" Uh oh. She used my full name. I'm in trouble. Why? I just wanted to play...*TWACK!* So, she drags my sobbing ass back to the store, tells the owner I'm a thief and makes me apologize and give them back. She also asks them to call the cops, to which the owner, after seeing the terrorized look on my face, politely declined. As we walked out of the store again, I heard the dreadful words..."Wait until we get home". I knew she was gonna spank the living daylights outta me...and then tell dad. He'd spank me too.

I never stole anything again. Half the time I even accepted gifts from other people without my parents assuring me it was okay to take them. I can honestly say I never cheated on a test, however I was the geek everyone copied from. I never falsified my parents' signature for school. I never did anything dishonest in both work and school (maybe I did google or blog while on the clock, but of course, I got caught and reprimended).

That being said. Why did someone steal money from my wallet at work today? I've never messed with anyone, and I never had any problems there before with anybody. I had $500.00 in my wallet to pay the last rent owed in the place I was living in. Today at lunch, I used $8.00 from that for my 1456th salad in the past month. I, again, looked in my wallet before going into work and the money was there. I put my purse under my desk as usual, and trained the new girl all afternoon, until about 3 p.m. when I left her alone in the back office for a bit to see if she could handle the job without me hovering over. I came back at 4:30 and took off. When I went to pay for dinner shortly after that, I opened the wallet and the wad looked significantly thinner, I figured it had moved when I paid for lunch. When I desperately re-counted all my money, there was only $130.00 in there. I looked everywhere, KNOWING I never so much as opened my purse all afternoon for anything. I didn't pay for anything. It was just sitting under the desk. My purse doesn't close with a zipper so you can see the cell phone in there, the wallet and my sugar meter.

It didn't fall out. The whole $500.00 were together in a tight little bundle. If it wouldve fallen out, the WHOLE amount would've fallen out. Why was there still money left?! "Whoever" did it should've just taken the whole thing, instead of just mocking me by leaving behind some cash. That was my rent money. I won't get paid in my new job for a few weeks, hell I didn't pay half the bills due this pay period so I could have some left over for that damn rent and food till next paycheck.

What the freakin heck man. I hope you enjoy it. Relish in it. You don't do that to people. Heck if you needed it that bad you should've asked me if I could lend you some. I couldn't have afforded to give you THAT much but at least some!

I'm broke and I feel cheated. I should've had the whole stack of pancakes for dinner, not just one.