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!
