Lunch Money

Hello All:

Today’s new story has an important lesson to be learned: Don’t leave money lying about at home.

Have a great weekend!

Lunch Money

Jonny's parents were prepared to make a purchase on a used car later on Tuesday morning. See, Mother had gotten into a car accident and she needed a car to drive to work. Both Mother and Father worked; and with the loss of one car it was becoming a bit of a hassle for both husband and wife to drive to work, together, each day. The accident took place a couple of weeks ago. They were in no position to purchase a car right away while waiting for the insurance companies to settle the claim.

Jonny's parents aren't exactly wealth. They live paycheck to paycheck and needed put aside some money for a couple of weeks for the new car. Again, they weren't in the best condition as far as finances were concerned. Their credit history was shot which meant they certainly couldn't qualify for a car loan. They would just have to purchase a used car the old fashioned way; finding a used vehicle in the classified ads, scheduling an appointment with the owner to view and possibly test—drive, then pay cash in full when finally deciding.

And so, on a Tuesday morning, there lay a stack of folded bills on the kitchen counter which totaled two thousand dollars; some hundreds, twenties, tens a five and some ones—remember, they really had to dig for that two thousand dollars. It lay on the kitchen counter, folded up; waiting to be handed over to the owner of the vehicle they were about to purchase.

Rather than have the hundred showing on the outside of the folded bills, the money was folded as such so that the one dollar bill showed on the outside. It was all weighted down underneath a large Morton Salt container. As mentioned before, Jonny's parents had planned on driving to the owner's house later that afternoon to give him the money for the title of the car, the keys, and ultimate possession. Finally, Mother would have her car and both husband and wife could get to work independently.

Jonny entered the kitchen that Tuesday morning. Tuesday's were always bland and boring for him. He rummaged through the kitchen for something for breakfast and decided on Quaker Dinosaur Egg Instant Oatmeal. While pouring the water into the bowl, Jonny looked over and saw the stack of money folded up and weighted down by the Morton Salt container. He assumed that this was his lunch money for the day. Mother hadn't made lunch or given him money the previous night. What else could it be? So Jonny simply picked up the stack of money and put it in his wallet. Jonny never bothered to look how much money it was. He was short on time and simply stuffed the stack in his wallet. He ate breakfast and head off to the bus stop.

Around the time when Jonny sat in the seat of the bus he began to feel that his wallet was considerably fatter than normal. It put pressure near the area of his rear pocket while sitting. "Man... My wallet is fat today." complained Jonny out loud.

Jonny's best friend, Tony, sat next to him. "What, do you have a lot of money or something?"

"My mom put my lunch money on the counter for me, and I just put it in my wallet. Let's see how much she gave me." Jonny pulled out his wallet, opened it up, and pulled out the bills. Immediately both boys exclaimed, "Whoa...!"

"How much money is this?" continued Jonny.

Some of the kids nearby rushed over to Jonny's seat to see what was happening. There were so many hundred dollar bills in there. The kids had never seen so much money before.

"Awe! This is great!" exclaimed Jonny.

"Can I have some?" asked one of the nearby kids.

"No way!" answered Jonny. "But I tell you, this is going to be a great lunch today."

"I'm definitely sitting with you." declared Tony.

"What do you say we just totally buy up all the pizza that they have their and have a pizza party for lunch?" suggested Jonny.

"Yeah, let's do that!" agreed Tony.

"Can I sit at your table?" asked one of the nearby kids.

"Sure, why not?" answered Jonny.

By the end of the bus ride, all the kids were excited about the pizza party that would take place during lunch; all the cakes and goodies—a huge feast for Tuesday. And this would just be the beginning. Plans would soon be made to seriously party with the unbelievable amount of money that Jonny had in his possession. All the while, Jonny never once questioned why Mother had given him so much. He never considered that perhaps it was an error and that he best return it to Mother and Father as soon as possible.

Back at home, Mother and Father woke up and entered the kitchen for morning coffee.

"Susan...?"

"What, Jon?"

"Where is our money?"

Susan gasped, "Oh no! Oh, I bet Jonny thought that was his lunch money and took it."

"You've got to be kidding me!" exclaimed Jon. "So our kid is going to walk around school all day with two thousand dollars in his wallet?"

"I'm so sorry Jon!" apologized Susan. Do you want me to stop at the school really quick to get it back from him?"

"Well what are we going to do?" snapped Jon. "Are we going to walk into the school and try to tell the principal that we accidentally gave our kid a couple thousand dollars and need it back? You better hope he doesn't lose that money today. That's the money for your car."

Needless to say, it was a very tense car ride to work that morning. They fought and argued the entire ride to work. At one point, Susan was so close to calling the school and asking to speak to her son. She wanted to beg him not to lose the money. But she waited, and simply trusted that he would bring the money home upon realizing a mistake had been made.

But by third hour gym class, rumor had spread throughout the school that Jonny had a couple thousand dollars on him. And Jonny wasn't the biggest kid, either. He couldn't defend himself so easily. The school thugs decided that they would collect their much deserved money. There was a big group of them in gym class who walked up to Jonny in the locker room as he changed into his gym uniform.

"Hey Jonny?" called out the leader of the thugs. "Where's your money?"

"What?" nervously answered Jonny.

"Your lunch money." reminded the leader of the thugs.

"We're here to beat you up for your lunch money." said one of the other thugs.

"I'm not going to give you that." argued Jonny.

With that, the leader of the thugs grabbed Jonny by the shirt and pushed him into the locker. "I'm not going to say it again. Where's your lunch money? Give it to me, or you'll be sorry!"

But it was no use continuing to argue. By then one of the thugs went into Jonny's locker and removed the wallet from his pants pocket.

"Well, well, well; what do we have here?" exclaimed the thug.

"Holy crap!" exclaimed another.

The leader slapped Jonny in the head before asking, "Now was that so difficult?" He released Jonny and grabbed the money to count it. "There must be a couple thousand dollars in here. What do you say we ditch school for today and live it up?"

The thugs left the school for the day and partied it up with two thousand dollars in cash that had been stolen from Jonny. And as you know, the money was taken by mistake. Mother and Father had struggled for a couple of weeks to save the money and use it for purchasing Mother’s new car.

So let that be a lesson to you: Don't leave money sitting on the kitchen counter at home.

The End!