Experiences. Coins.

I board an empty bus where a young woman and a young man had just stepped on before me; I was the third. I see the girl print her ticket using an exact coin, then take her ticket; next is the young man, who puts in the exact ninety cents and takes his ticket. It’s my turn. I put in a coin, and when I reach for my change, surprise! Two ten-cent coins. Evidently, one wasn’t mine. I pick it up, walk toward the back, and as I pass, I offer it to the girl. She says it isn’t hers. Then I offer it to the young man sitting right behind her; he says it isn’t his either. Fine, I kept the ten cents. I wasn't going to take them to the driver for ten cents; it wasn't worth the trouble. Nor did I know that I was about to lose five from the total amount gained. Later, I ended up giving them away along with a couple more coins, but that’s beside the point.

So, in the afternoon, I get on another bus. A woman—one of those thoroughly rude people who had previously cut in line—gets on and buys a ninety-cent ticket. She pays with five coins, exact change, takes her ticket, and sits down. It’s my turn. I get a ninety-cent ticket and pay with a one-peso coin again. When I go to collect my change, I find three coins: twenty-five cents. One was mine, and fifteen cents belonged to someone who wasn't me. I immediately realized that those belonged to someone already sitting on the bus, likely the last person who had boarded. So as not to look like a true thief of fifteen cents, the first thing I do is offer them as the change that "had been left behind" by the desperate woman who boarded before me. Like any slow-witted person desperate for a paltry fifteen cents, she first shakes her head no, and then the penny drops. She smiles and says, "Ah, yes." I hand them to her, and the shameless woman takes the fifteen cents that actually belonged to someone else—someone who, I assume, was sitting on the bus and didn't care much about the coins if they had abandoned them. That’s how it is: for some people, fifteen cents are worth more than their own honesty.

(Originally published on 4/19/2008)