More Valuable Than Money

BY AWAKE! CORRESPONDENT IN CANADA

“[She] gave her daughter a gift far more valuable than any amount of money,” acknowledged an editorial comment in The Monitor newspaper of Bridgetown, Nova Scotia. What was the gift? It was her “wonderful example of honesty.”

Anna and her daughter Tanya stopped at a yard sale and bought a white purse to hold Tanya’s Bible. When they arrived home, Tanya opened a zipper inside the purse and was astonished to find $1,000 in bills. Immediately, mother and daughter returned to the yard sale and handed the money to the lady who had sold them the purse. Apparently, the seldom-used purse had belonged to her recently deceased mother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, and it had not been closely examined before being sold. Extremely grateful, the lady remarked: “It restores my faith in people . . . It’s nice to know there are honest people out there.”

A front-page article about the incident in the local newspaper quoted Anna as saying: “As Jehovah’s Witnesses, we couldn’t consider anything else. We have a Bible-based [conscience]. We also want to teach Tanya what’s right.” For Tanya, the new white purse will be a special reminder of a lesson in honesty.