Restoring My Faith in the Human Race

Have I got a story for you all, humble readers!

Last night I was working the late shift, like I do most Mondays. It was quiet in the store as our Star.bucks is currently closed for renos (guess who's jones-ing for a green tea lemonade?!?). I was near the front of the store when a young man, apparently in his early twenties, came into the store.

He walked directly to me and asked if I was the manager. I answered yes, and asked how I could help him. He handed me an envelope and said, 'this is for you', then he turned and walked back out to his truck.

I opened the envelope and there was a small note along with $25 cash. The note read something to this effect:

Dear Owner, Some time ago,
when I was a teenager and had
no sense or wisdom,
I stole a book from your store.
Unfortunately I no longer have
the book, so please accept
this $25 as recompense.
Sincerely, Annonymous

I was stunned! Floored! Flabbergasted! Speechless!

I confess that I am a jaded retail employee and I honestly thought I had seen it all! Never, in almost 10 years of retail work have I had an adult own up to stealing (unless caught red-handed), let alone offer to pay for what was taken. I have had parents bring children in for that painful life lesson about not taking what isn't yours... Timmy, what do you say to the lady? Tell her what you did...

On the practical side, because our tills are not programmed to accept random amounts of money without having a corresponding item that is sold out of our system, I was unable to use the money as the young man intended. (Not to mention that there was no indication of what item he stole, or how long ago it was, and it was probably already written off as loss.) Instead, I made a $25 donation to our children's literacy fund.

I have no context in which to frame the events of last evening. Except to say, thank the good Lord that there are still people out there who have the strength to own up to their mistakes and be accountable for them.