by Gauri Trivedi

Created on: February 22, 2007   Last Updated: April 08, 2009

It is so difficult to discuss money and ethics in the same line. For it is the biggest tragedy of life today that money is a major motivation to compromise on ethics. To be dishonest doesn't require any guts; it is to remain honest that one needs to be brave.
Some of my experiences relating to money have me convinced that, ethics do not follow any hierarchy or protocol. At times, the rich want to get richer by any means, while the poor strive to be as honest as their survival permits them to be.

During my stay in Japan, I went through one such memorable incident. Something that re-affirmed my faith in honesty and restored my belief in morals. It wasn't an earth shattering event, just a small experience which humbled me and changed my vision for life.
Grocery shopping for us happened once in ten days as that particular super store was a good half an hour walk away. It also used to be a window shopping exercise for me and a couple of my friends as "Seiyu" was seven stories tall with various departments. we enjoyed looking at all the beautiful stuff displayed in the store and sometimes wished we could afford all that and more. During one such shopping expedition, I left the cash counter with just my shopping bags. Yes, I paid the billed amount and absent mindedly forgot to put my wallet back in. it wasn't until I reached home hours later that I realised my wallet was missing. I tried to retrace my steps back and concluded that I forgot it at the cash counter of the store. I didn't have any real hopes of finding it but just to satisfy myself of the effort, I rushed back, rather ran back to the place I left it.
A pleasant surpise awaited me right at the door. Before I could start looking for my wallet, a store representative appraoched me and asked if I could please follow her upstairs and collect my wallet. She recognised me from the I.D in the wallet as the store people had made a list of things found in the wallet. Believe me, not a yen was missing. I got to know from the same person that the customer in line after me had pointed out my purse lying on the counter. The employee at the cash counter immediately turned it in to her supervisor. And that is how I got my wallet back, intact. I thanked them again and again, more out of shock than gratitude, because that day I had a lot of cash with me.

This real life experience made me wonder if it was all right to be skeptical and doubtful of everybody when it came to money. Does money really corrupt all alike? As I discovered for myself, the answer to both was negative.

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