TWO DOLLARS WORTHOF RIGHT

“What is right is often forgotten by what is convenient.”   ~Bodie Thoene, Warsaw Requiem

It would have been a lot more convenient to just forget about it. But that would not have been right.

I knew it was only two dollars worth of right, but right nonetheless. I had to turn around and go back in.

The case of water was heavy. I had hoisted it up from the store’s display and released it into the shopping cart with a thud. The checker can just zap it with her price gun, I thought to myself. I won’t take it out of the cart. And that’s the last thought I had about it until I was loading it and my other groceries into my car on that frigid cold day.

As soon as I touched the water I realized I had not paid for it. The checkout clerk, I was pretty sure, had not noticed it. And I had not noticed her not noticing it. I was standing there shivering, but just to be sure, I dug out my receipt and scanned it. And scanned it again. Nope. No $1.99 case of water bottles on the bill. No water at all.

Now, as I said, this was a “we’re all freezing here” kind of day. I was cold. I wanted to go home. I did not want to trudge back into the store, stand in line at the service desk and tell my story about how I’d walked out of the store without paying for my water. But I did. Because it was the honest thing to do. Because it’s what God would want me to do. And because I’d probably choke on that water if I didn’t (just kidding, but you never know…).

Speaking of being honest, I fully expected the service desk employee to say something like, “Wow. You came back in to pay for this water. How nice of you!”

She did not. She was annoyed. She was suspicious. Kind of like I had “snuck” out of the store with this large, bulky item in plain view, and then inexplicably had an attack of conscience once I hit the parking lot. She literally had her hand out, waiting for me to pay up.

Huh. Not what I expected. Not at all. Truth to tell, I was expecting to be thanked for being honest.

But, really? Thanked for what I knew in my heart was only right? Aristotle once said that “the least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.” And though, in the scheme of things, two measly little dollars wasn’t much, not paying would be a definite “deviation from the truth.”

And God is all about truth. Psalm 15:1,2 says, “O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart.” “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much,” said Jesus (Luke 16:10), “and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.”

Not paying the $1.99 would have been dishonest. It would not have been right. Though I owed very little, not paying would have made me dishonest in much. And I didn’t need to be thanked for being obedient. I just needed to obey.