WWJD?

Yesterday Don and I went to the Tick Tock Diner in Manhattan by Penn Station for lunch. The check arrived and the waitress had forgotten to put the bottle of Barq’s root beer on the tab. Don wondered if we should tell her or just pay. So it was now WWJD – what would Jeanette do? I told Don as tempting as it was since the food was expensive to not say anything, we had to tell her and pay for the soda.

Now the sad thing that always gets me regarding these sorts of situations is that apparently doing the right thing is not the norm. The waitress thanked us profusely (it was a bottle of soda, not a needed kidney for goodness sake) and said how rare it was to find honest people. It drives me crazy when I pick-up the paper or read on the internet the kind stranger who returned a wallet or something else to its RIGHTFUL owner. Since when did found items become finders, keepers? As a child, that is fine for a quarter but as we get older, finding something of value should be returned to its owner or brought to the police station. An attempt should be made to be like a Spike Lee movie title and “do the right thing”.

And the right thing should be the NORM, not the rarity that has praise heaped upon it.