A wallet was lying on the ground just outside the entrance to Home Depot. Morgan stooped down to pick it up. She opened it, found $285 in cash, credit cards, drivers license, and a bunch of business cards with the owner’s cell phone number. She called and made arrangements to return the wallet. What percentage of people would return a lost wallet intact?

Several studies have been done which ask the same question. The answer might surprise you. The answer is: 74%, or 3 out of four people return a wallet intact when they find one. For Morgan, it was a no-brainer. She doesn’t take something that doesn’t belong to her. Ever. Yet her actions are not typical for the members of her family. She wasn’t raised with honest values, she learned on her own. 

And she learned it the hard way. She was caught shoplifting as a teen. One department store security guard taught her the difference between wrong and right with a simple sentence: “Thieves always get caught.” He went on to explain: “Once you’re successful stealing, you’ll do it again and again. It makes it harder to pay.” Morgan understood the odds, didn’t like the trouble she found herself in, and ended her criminal career in the back office of Macy’s.

Morgan didn’t need a hell and brimstone sermon to begin questioning the pros and cons of being honest. A stranger in a Pinkerton uniform did it for her. You never know when you have the power to influence another and turn a life around. Morgan didn’t know how her life lesson would come to her. With a bad experience came a lifetime of goodness. She used her inner strength to rise above her circumstances and live righteously. Honesty is an important value. Thank God the majority of people are blessed with it.