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Memoir

At one point in our lives we are most likely to encounter ethical dilemma. In my case, the ethical dilemma I was in involved me finding a wallet within the school compound. The wallet had $3000, a driving license and a debit card in it. I had just been told I needed to get some books but unfortunately at that time I did not have the money. My siblings had also called me indicating that she needed some money and I had promised to send her something in the course of the day. A part of me wanted me to take that money with the justification I was not going to waste it on money or clothes, but rather get books. However, another part wanted me to give back the purse

As a college student, surviving in campus is hard. There are always extra costs arising including having to pay for a classes to take an exam or class an extra fee which was not included in the tuition fee to paying for books. I was torn on either returning the purse with the money or using the money to get myself the books I really wanted. A part of me wanted me to take that money with the justification I was not going to waste it on money or clothes, but rather get books. However, another part wanted me to give back the purse to the front office desk as the owner would suffer. The thought of pocketing someone else’s money would consume me knowing that this was money I had not worked for but I wanted to benefit out of it. Being raised in Christian home, I clearly knew in my mind that returning the purse or trying to contact the owner was the right thing, but deep down I did not have deep conviction.

I had baseball practice later in the day and I had decided that before then I will have thought on what steps I would take and the decision I would make. Thoughts kept crisscrossing my mind at times I felt that God had answered my prayers in a way as I had collected the money just when I really needed money. You know how we often say God works in mysterious ways, I thought this was one of the mysterious ways. Despite all these thoughts of me trying to justify my act of keeping the money, I had an inner instinct to just contact the owner as the money may have been important to him. He may have needed the money to clear his fee or even for his general upkeep. I had also informed my friend about the situation and him being a morally upright and principled man, he advised me to trace the owner and return the money.

After a great debate with my inner self, I decided that I would return the purse because of two main reasons: the owner will feel extremely awful on losing his wallet and thus keeping it would be an in convince and unfair to him. I also put myself in his shoes and thought that if someone picked up my purse then I would be extremely glad if they returned it. There was some contact info in the purse and I called the number to see if the info was for the purse’s owner, luckily it was. I explained to him how I had found his purse in the school compound and I wanted to return it to him. He was shocked as he had not realized he had dropped his wallet and was very grateful that I had actually returned his wallet. We made an arrangement on how he would get it and decided to meet in a café that was just right outside the school.

When we met up, the guy appeared laid back and my first impression was he was an introvert. We exchanged pleasantries and he told me his name was Jack. I gave him his wallet and made a joke on how he should not be walking around the school with such huge amount of cash while giggling. He pointed out that he needed to help a student out clear his fee balance and he was going to meet up with him and he had not realized his wallet had fallen. He then told me he needed to repay me for my act of kindness, and acknowledged the fact that most people would not have done that. Jack asked if I would be interested working part time in his father’s company as a supervisor as his father ran a clearing and forwarding company. I could not believe it, I had just landed myself a job, a job that eventually would compensate me more than the $3000 eventually if I had decided to pocket it. The lord had really worked in a mysterious way, although I had not pocketed the money I had landed myself a job just because of one right act, truly, doing the right thing will always have a greater reward.