Short story: A schoolboy is thrifty in a shifty way, or is he?
By emptychair
@innertalks (23746)
Australia
May 28, 2023 6:55pm CST
When John was at school, there was a system with the school canteen, where they would make the lunch order for the kids, and place any change into the brown paper bag, with the lunch, a hot pie, a sandwich etc. in too.
A lot of the kids would just eat their lunch quickly, and throw the bag, with its change in coins, into the bin, without noticing it in there.
The contents of the bins were in those days burnt in the school incinerator.
John would sift through the ashes, and find the coins still unburnt there, and take them for himself to spend in the canteen on a drink, or a packet of potato chips.
A school teacher caught him doing this after school one day though, and told him off. John had waited around until the other kids had already gone home, as he did not want any other kids to know about what he was doing.
Any coins found there belonged to the school, this mean-looking teacher said, and the cleaner/gardeners, who do not get a big pay, are allowed to supplement their pay with them too.
Do not let me catch you pilfering coins from there anymore, or I will introduce you to Mr Wood, my cane, he had told John.
John laughed this off, as he knew that this teacher probably would search out the coins, and actually keep them for himself. He had just made up that bit about the cleaners/gardeners, who were actually very well paid, and even had an allocated house, given to them to live in, in those days too, right next to the school. They would just shovel the ashes straight to the garden, without a second glance at them.
He would come very early before school started, after this, and still get his coins, as his parents were poor, and they never could afford a bought lunch, yet alone, give him money to buy anything else from the canteen too.
He would tell his mother that he wanted to get to school early to study in the school library.
Was John right in his doing this, or was he really flirting with the letter of the law too, bending it to meet his own needs?
Can we take advantage of situations like that, or are we stepping too far to the left, if we do so?
What is the lesson to be learned here?
Love has a long arm, but love always never bends it around corners, but is straight with its love.
We should live to the letter of the law when we can, as any bending of it towards our own situation, or position, usually upsets others, and we should not make waves, where none were there before.
We should be circumspect in our living, and not live on the edge of the law, or of anything else either.
We should be straight and honest with all proceedings in our lives.
Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com
John would sift through the ashes to find any coins in there.
8 people like this
7 responses
@DWDavis (25797)
• United States
29 May 23
@innertalks Here in the US, once it's been thrown away, ownership is first come, first serve.
3 people like this
@innertalks (23746)
• Australia
29 May 23
Yes, up to a point that is true, but these days, the tips, extract all the useful items from the trash, and onsell them, in secondhand shops, attached to the tips here, in Australia.
If anyone else tries to go through bins in the street, or junk collections put out for the garbage collectors to collect, they can be charged for stealing from the council coffers.
Life has gone a long way backwards in petty ways of overthinking, and in the exaggeratedness of political correctness, these days.
@innertalks (23746)
• Australia
29 May 23
@DWDavis A lot of people here give stuff to charity shops, and leave it on their doorsteps overnight.
This then, belongs in a way already to the charity shop, by intention, and yet, many people will go through the stuff, and take what they want, before the charity shop even sees it.
Also, if we trespass onto a farmer's land, and find a gold nugget there, who would that belong to, ourselves, or the farmer?
In the early days, of prospecting rights here, the gold prospector could do this, and any find would be his. These days he must get permission from the farmer, and perhaps the farmer might expect some of the profit from the find too.
@Jenaisle (16568)
• Philippines
29 May 23
'We should be straight and honest with all proceedings in our lives." Yes, that's true. But from John's point of view, his actions are justified, rather than stealing or robbing other people, so he could eat or provide for himself, he gathered the coins instead.
I know that big sins start from small sins, but if he knows that he couldn't go further than that, then I think it is justified that he could buy his meal with the coins he gathered there, instead of the teacher getting them for himself.
3 people like this
@innertalks (23746)
• Australia
29 May 23
Yes, I think that it was ok what he did there too.
As otherwise, if the teacher was not getting them, the coins would have just been buried in the school garden, when the gardener put the ashes onto the garden.
It was true, that the well-paid gardeners just shovelled the ashes quickly onto the garden beds, and never looked for any coins in there at all
@Jenaisle (16568)
• Philippines
29 May 23
@innertalks I'm glad you agreed. It's like a priest telling a lie to save a person's life.
3 people like this
@innertalks (23746)
• Australia
29 May 23
@Jenaisle Yes, it is a hard line to draw sometimes though, and we shouldn't extend good fortune, to profit ourselves in any other clandestine way too.
If John, went a bit further, and actually broke into the canteen, and stole items from there for himself, that is another whole story, of wrongdoing.
I have heard of charity workers here, collecting money from people, who often take half of it for themselves, justifying their action, by saying to themselves that they are not getting paid for their work, so deserve some compensation.
Charity workers in charity shops, often take some of the best donations home, unpaid for by themselves too, also justifying their actions, by thinking that they at least deserve some rewards for their unpaid for efforts there too.
@innertalks (23746)
• Australia
29 May 23
Yes, maybe, he was ensuring too, that the coins were not just lost, and buried in the garden.
If we extend this idea though, when John eventually got an office job, he used to take the office pens, and notepaper home to use too, thinking that he was entitled to use them for his own out-of-office use too, under what he thought was the law of gleaning.
The law of gleaning is an old law that allows the excess of our crops, located at the sides of our fields, to be taken by poor passersby, or neighbours, and the farmers always allowed them to do this, as otherwise, they would go empty-handed, and hungry.
We cannot be trivial with honesty, but must always play our life rightly, uprightly.
@manikarnika (3301)
• India
31 May 23
It is a kind of theft only.If it is found unfortunately on ground means it is ok for john to have it, but daily rountine definitely make him a thief.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23746)
• Australia
31 May 23
Yes, if it is a once of, it might be ok, but if it is ongoing, the better thing to do would have been to tell his teacher, that some kids are not collecting their lunch money change in their bags, and then the teacher would have announced it to the kids too, to do so.
@dgobucks226 (37621)
•
3 Jun 23
Seems John had a conscience since he waited for all the other kids to leave before looking for the coins. He knew it was wrong. Or he did not want others getting in on the action. This only John knows for sure. His justification was his parents were poor and he needed the money to buy lunch. And the workers did not need the coins. Is this an attempt to ease his conscience? I wonder? Anyway, after being warned he abused the system which was unacceptable behavior.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23746)
• Australia
4 Jun 23
Thanks for your thoughts about this example of conscience.
I do not think I would say that a system is in place here, though, as it was more a happenstance event.
Some kids left their change money in their lunch bag, and then threw the bag into the bin.
The bins contents were burnt in the incinerator, and the ashes were dumped nearby, for the gardeners to use.
John was an opportunist, and found the coins in the ashes, and kept them for himself.
The truly altruistic approach would have been for him to return the coins to the headmaster of the school, knowing that some teachers were not to be trusted, either, and he could have informed the headmaster of what was happening with the lunch bags, and the headmaster could have announced this to the kids in their assembly, and told them to make sure they took their lunch change money before disposing of the bag to the rubbish bin.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23746)
• Australia
4 Jun 23
@dgobucks226 Yes, that was the way that the canteen operated.
If they knew what was happening with the change, though, they might have changed their system of giving back any change due to the students, in that way.
The situation with the sifting of the ashes, came about because of this system, indirectly, but it was not a setup, an included, or an intended, part of the system, more an unforeseen consequence of it.
I could have maybe better used the word method, to describe the way the canteen worked, as it was just a way they did things there, rather than it being a full-blown system, so to speak.
2 people like this
@dgobucks226 (37621)
•
4 Jun 23
@innertalks That's not how I interpreted this story in my view. John was an opportunist in the worst kind of way. Using unscrupulous tactics to get what he wanted, and justifying his actions in doing so. Seems there was a system of sorts as mentioned in the beginning paragraph below...
"When John was at school, there was a "system with the school canteen," where they would make the lunch order for the kids, and place any change into the brown paper bag, with the lunch, a hot pie, a sandwich etc. in too."
2 people like this
@Nakitakona (59987)
• Philippines
30 May 23
To live is to find means on how. For me, John is right. He knows to sustain his study and life for his family is poor.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23746)
• Australia
31 May 23
Of course, this was only petty change really, and if he had found a valuable ring in there, lost by a lady school teacher, he should, of course, hand that find in, and not keep it for himself, or sell it to make money, for himself either.
@innertalks (23746)
• Australia
31 May 23
@Nakitakona Yes, perhaps, the teacher would reward him for finding it too, and for his honesty in returning it to her, as well.
@Nakitakona (59987)
• Philippines
31 May 23
@innertalks Hoping it he found the lost ring and return it, he would be reward with money.
2 people like this
@Shiva49 (28402)
• Singapore
29 May 23
This is not stealing but going the extra mile to feed himself as his parents were not well off. So some liniency is of the order.
It looks like other interested parties are not above blame either. Maybe, they feel shortchanged by this smart Alec.
1 person likes this
@innertalks (23746)
• Australia
30 May 23
He was trying not to get himself noticed, but the teacher, who was late leaving that night, stopped to investigate what the boy was up to, as it looked like suspicious behaviour to him.
Once, he saw what the boy was doing, he told him off, perhaps thinking that he would give it a go himself.
Yes, it is making the best of a situation, where a gift horse is given to one, but where some work must still be done to unearth the actual gifts.
@innertalks (23746)
• Australia
31 May 23
@Shiva49 We all react as best we can at the time.
John was affected by this too, as that nasty teacher told other students about John's hidden treasure trove, and after that, it was all hands on deck, as others got into the treasure hunting too.
Also, the rich kids, who didn't check their lunch bags before, for change, now, checked them more often too.
The money mine became less valuable for all, especially John, who now missed out on finding much there at all.
@Shiva49 (28402)
• Singapore
30 May 23
@innertalks Yeah, it is not outright stealing and merits commiseration.
Circumstances did conspire against him too.
Not sure how I would react in similar circumstances.
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