Theme: Honesty
Found can be stolen
Tonico was hurrying toward his class, because the school
signal was already about to hit. A few steps in front of
him, also hurriedly carrying a lot of things, among his
backpack, coat, notebooks and sheets, was his colleague
Marcos.
When he turned right, in the hallway where his room was,
Tonico saw no more Marcos. He had just entered. Tonico
was coming in too when he realized that on the floor,
just before the door, were two rolled up notes.
Tonico thought that the money should be from Marcos,
since his friend had just come by. But the bell rang at
that moment and he only had time to take the money, put
it in his pocket, and enter in the class.
Sitting in his desk, Tonico was glad because he
remembered the saying that "found is not stolen". He
decided that he would buy a snack at the canteen with
the money found.
At recess, Tonico came out happy. He chose the snack he
wanted and then went to play with his friends,
satisfied. When the signal hit indicating the end of the
interval, Tonico went to his class like the other
children.
He did not notice, but Marcos did not go playing. He was
sitting in his desk, sad.
- Didn’t you leave, Marcos? - Tonico asked his friend.
- No - said the boy dryly.
- Why? - Tonico insisted.
Because someone stole my money. I looked for a long time
and did not find it. And besides losing all the time in
the park, I couldn’t eat.
Tonico froze. He could not speak. He wanted to explain
that he had found the money, but thought his friend
would be angry with him.
When he found the money, Tonico knew that Marcos's
chances were great. But the idea of buying the snack
was so cool that he did not even try to figure out if it
was. He preferred to take advantage of the "luck" he
had, forgetting that his luck was his friend's bad luck.
The teacher asked everyone to sit down, because there
was something very serious about talking to the class.
She told them that Marcos's money was gone and started
talking about how wrong it is to mess with others'
things and how honesty matters. They were thinking the
money had been stolen. Tonico did not dare say anything,
but he felt very bad about that situation.
When he got home, his mother soon realized that he was
not well. She asked her son what had happened at school,
but he did not want to tell. She went to his backpack to
see if she had any messages from the teacher. Then she
noticed that the snack she had prepared for her son was
still there, intact.
- Son, do you want to eat something? Are you hungry? -
she asked.
- No, Mama, not now. I'll eat later. - Tonico answered.
- Then you must have eaten the whole lunch. Was it
tasty? - she continued.
- Yes - Tonico answered, not wanting to extend on the
subject.
- But what good snack did you eat? - Asked the mother,
pointing to the lunch box. - Yours is all here!
Tonico tried to think fast about some excuse, but he
couldn’t. He started crying, putting out all the
pressure and sadness he was feeling. Then, calmer, he
told everything that had happened.
Talking to his mother, he felt better because she
believed he did not steal it, but found the money. Even
so, the mother taught:
- Son, when we find something that is not ours, we must
try to know who it belongs to and give it back. If,
after trying to find the owner, in every possible way,
we don’t, then we can take what we have found, but then
we will have a clear conscience.
Tonico did not like to hear that. That was precisely the
problem, his conscience was not at all calm. His mother
realizing the situation said:
- All right, dear. Will be all right! I'm going to help
you.
- Help? how? I do not want anyone to know! - Tonico
said, frightened.
- Son, even if no one knows, you know. And God too! If
you don’t return the money to Marcos, you will always
feel bad when you remember that.
And she went on:
- Let's do it like this, I'm going to prepare a
delicious snack with cake, juice and bread stuffed for
you and him. And you are going to take two notes from
your piggy bank, as the same ones you used, to give back
to him.
- But mother… will it work? - asked the boy, afraid.
Confident, she replied:
- I think so. If you explain it right, apologize, say
that you now want to repair the mistake by offering him
a snack and returning the money, I believe he will
understand and be your friend even more, by seeing you
acting honestly and sincerely. Sometimes it takes
courage to be able to do what is right. But you will.
Listening to his mother speak this way, Tonico was
convinced that it was the best thing to do. The next
day, as soon as he hit the sign, announcing the
beginning of the recess, he went straight to Marcos. He
said that he had brought a snack to him and started
conversation.
He arrived home that day, quite differently from the day
before. Cheerful, chatty...
- Mother, Marcos asked if he can come and play here at
home on Saturday. And if you can make more chocolate
cake for us - said, as he played with Duke, his dog.
She smiled and said yes. The subject was closed and with
a happy ending.
Translation:
Larissa Martine - larissa_am@hotmail.com
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