Honesty

I moved to Toronto from a small town in 1967.  

I remember in those years when I was attending university that newspapers were left in boxes along the  sidewalks.  You simply picked up a paper and there was a box attached and you put your coins in there to pay.  There were no safeguards, you could cheat if you wanted, but clearly at that time most people paid and whatever loss there was due to cheating didn't require them to change the system.  

I remember being with a friend once who put pennies in to pretend they were paying and I was so disappointed in them. I seem to remember them using some flimsy justification about being a student and needing to watch their spending.  I actually went back later and paid for the paper - that was how my parents raised me, they would have been appalled if I had just let it go.  However, I wasn't brave enough to confront my friend or deposit the coins to pay for the paper in front of them.  But I've never been good at confrontation.

What bought this history to mind was hearing recently about the huge problems stores are having with shoplifting and with people cheating at self-checkouts. 

I'm sure people who do this manage to reason to themselves why it was ok to do it.  I know there have always been people who cheat.  The thing that troubles me is that there seems to be so much of it now, that it seems to be the norm rather than the exception.  That so much effort has to be spent to try and guard against it.

My parents were the sort of people who if, after they got home, found a mistake in their favour on a sales slip would go back to the store and pay the difference.