Just over a week ago, I came across the story of a man in Chile who was accidentally paid more than 300 times his monthly salary. Can you guess what he did when he found out?
He took the money and ran!
The unnamed man discovered that he had been paid nearly £150,000 for a month's work instead of the usual £450. When he found the staggering amount paid into his account, he initially told his manager, who then flagged it to the company's Human Resources Department.
He agreed to go to the bank the next day and promised to return the cash. He apparently had a change of mind, withdrew the entire amount, and disappeared into thin air.
It reminds me of a saying I came across a long time ago that said, "You cannot say you're an honest person until you find yourself in a situation where you have to choose between your reputation and a huge life-changing sum of money."
I very much doubt that our Chilean friend would be interested in throwing his hat into the ring for the "World's Most Honest Person" competition anytime soon. But I came across a few people who may be in the running for that title. One of them was a Goodwill employee from Norman, Oklahoma in the United States.
For those who may not be aware, Goodwill Industries International (often shortened to Goodwill) is an American non-profit organization that provides job training and a variety of other community-based programs for people who have barriers to their employment. Most of the goods and resources they provide are often donated by kind-hearted people from the various countries in which they operate.
Andrea Lessing was sorting through a pile of donations at the Goodwill location where she worked when she felt something odd and hard between two sweaters. She suspected they would be books, but unwrapped them to find stacks of cash - what turned out to be a total sum of US$42,000.
Lessing didn't think twice about whether or not to report the money. With the help of some documentation about the donation, Goodwill was able to track down the owner of the cash and return the money. A few people made the argument that the $42,000 did not mean much to her because she must have a lot of money. If not, she would have kept it, they argued.
However, after her good deed was rewarded with $1,000 cash, she said the owner's generosity lifted a huge burden off her shoulders. If a $1,000 gift lifted a huge burden, you can only imagine how much easier $42,000 would have made her life.
In an interview, Lessing said it was important for her 6-year-old daughter to see the importance of honesty. She further stated: "With every decision I make, I have to think about whether I would want my daughter to follow in my footsteps. I want her to know that kindness, integrity, and honesty can get you a lot of places in life."
I agree with her on that last sentence. Character, integrity, and honesty will take you places you'd never dreamed of. They will open doors for you. Even if they don't, at least you'd be able to rest easy and sleep well at night. I seriously doubt that our Chilean friend would stop looking over his shoulders anytime soon.
I once heard someone say, "Reputation is what others think you are. Character is who you really are." You may have a good reputation, but does it match up with who you are in private? I do believe that when we take care of our character, our reputation takes care of itself.
You and I must consider if who we are in private matches our public persona. You may not have escaped with your company's £150,000, but could there be other areas in which you're doing something similar even if it's on a smaller scale?
I once had a colleague who would spend more than $50 every night on a steak dinner during business travels just because the company policy allowed it. Once in a while was okay but every night during each business trip? And in a department where most people travel more than 50% of the time, that can add up very quickly. It took our supervisor asking him if he would spend his own money the same way for the behavior to stop.
I've seen quite a number of people straddle that line between integrity and compromise many times while hoping that no one was paying attention. Even when what you're doing does not infringe on your company's rules and procedures, would a casual observer think something fishy is going on?
As J. C. Watts noted, "Character is doing what's right when nobody's looking." Do you err on the side of doing the right thing even when it’s obvious that no one will find out?
I think that's a good question for me and you to ask ourselves in everything we do.
After all, character is all.