Travel Truth

A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.

Mark Twain

I couldn't decide what to write about for my T post today. I thought about Travel and I thought about Truth, then I came upon the quote by Twain and was amused to find he combined the two into one pithy comment.

So, a few quick words about each.

TRAVEL: I would love to travel, but have never had much opportunity, which is why I was stumped when trying to devise a travel post. My wish list for travel destinations is the U.K., Italy, Australia, and Japan. It seems travel will definitely be in my future though, as my daughter and son-in-law will be moving to Peru this summer. South America was not on my destination list but, "Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails" (Proverbs 19:21).

TRUTH: In my H post for the Blogging A-Z Challenge, I related a story about honesty. I find honesty and truth to be tightly twined concepts. Telling the truth involves being honest, and being honest requires one to be truthful. My husband and I recently felt compelled to tell the truth to someone about one of those "elephant in room" situations. We paid a price for telling the truth and hurt was part of the fallout. He and I have no regrets about telling the truth, and despite the hurt, peace and relief also resulted. Moral of the story? Let truth prevail.

T is done, now it is time to move onto the letter U.

Image: photostock/freedigitalphotos.net

Pork Loin Honesty

The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his income tax return. It's the zero adjust 

 on his bathroom scale.

Arthur C. Clarke

After deciding to serve my guests roasted pork loin for Easter dinner, the next task was to see if it was on sale at any of the local grocery stores. Fortunately, I found it for $2.29 per pound if I used my grocery store club card (I often find it for $1.99, but beggars can't be choosers). 

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This particular chain also allows you to log into your "account" and based on your purchase history, offers unique, special deals to their customers. Again, fortunately, they were offering an additional .10 off so I could buy my pork loin for $2.19 per pound. (I'm not sure how I feel about Big Brother knowing we like to eat pork loin.)

I bought my pork loin and other groceries, and at the checkout the cashier looked at my receipt and said, "You saved a lot." I agreed that I had found some great bargains. When I got home and finished putting away the groceries, I looked over my receipt and noticed that I was charged $2.19 for the entire six-pound loin. At the checkout both the sale price for the pork and my special offer discount were applied. So for a $31 pork loin I only paid $2.19.

Wow! My lucky day! Then my conscience woke up and said, "Wait a minute, you're not being very honest." I put the receipt aside for a couple of days then showed it to my husband. He said, "You'll have to go back and tell them you were undercharged." Sigh. He was right. What kind of a Christian am I?

Back I went with my receipt and explained to the man at the service desk that I was undercharged and owed the store money. He looked at the receipt and said no, I was charged correctly. I emphasized that I shouldn't have had both discounts applied to the roast, but he insisted that was how their system rang in up and it would be corrected eventually, but the roast was mine for $2.19. I insisted I wasn't entitled to that price, but he firmly said that the receipt was correct.

I went home, glad I had done the right thing. I had a clear conscience and was happy in the knowledge I had been honest. 

But I really regretted that I hadn't thought to go back and buy another one.

Welcome to the Blogging from A-Z April Challenge 2013. I'm aiming for short, entertaining and occasionally insightful posts. Topics addressing transitions are the goal . . . but we'll see.