Chinese New Year with a conscience

Ok this is a bit late...

And everybody is also doing this in their own blogs...

So shall I...

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR, PEOPLE!! May the YEAR OF THE RAT bring everyone of you WEALTH, HEALTH, JOY & HAPPINESS IN ABUNDANCE!!

Ok, this post is about self-conscience. And no, i'm not gonna do any fucked-up good behaviour counseling, and it is not going to be like those stupid SPM pendidikan moral crash course seminar.

Here's the question: What would you do if u find a pile of MONEY on the floor?
Yes, a pile of money. PLUS, u are alone and nobody is there. Just u and dough.

(a) You pick it up and keep it, and walk away ASAP.
(b) You stare at the money for awhile and see if anybody claims it, if not, u put them in your pocket.
(c) You hand it back to the rightful owner/ police station.

What would u do? Most of us would have answered (a) without conscience or doubt if were being asked this common question. I mean, who wouldn't want some extra pocket money? it is exactly like the chinese proverb, " money dropped from the heavens." Literally.
And usually when someone who picks answer (c) would definitely get 2 similar reaction:

• Got or not? You don't keh si keh si(Keh si= fake it in hokkien) laa...
• Wah, why u so stupid? keep the money la!

But it's altogether a different thing when u add conscience into the equation.

Last Hari Raya, my brother followed my mom to the business centre to run some errands. While waiting for my mom to finish her errands, he absent-mindedly loitered around the area. Due to the festive season, many people were bustling about the business centre either to do last minute shopping or to close a last minute deal.

Then there were many cars parked along the area. and my brother saw a stack (yes, ONE FAT STACK) of fifty ringgit CASH lying innocently on the road beside the door of a car. He picked it up, looked at it for awhile and absent-mindedly knock on the car and asked if the money belonged to them.

.... -_____-"""......

Which idiot won't say yes when u thrust a fat wad of fifty ringgit cash in their face asking if it's theirs?

so yeah.. The rest of the day was spent with my silly brother not-so-absent-mindedly ranting about not keeping the money. My mom consoled him by keep telling him that he did a good thing and she was proud of him.

I laughed at him. And there's a thing called karma.

It was 2nd day of Chinese New Year, I was hanging out with my bro and a group of friends. Then they decided to bring me and my bro about town to check out the popular hangout spots. We were hitting the clubs and having a good time. Well, good times are always interrupted by the need to pee.

Initially i was reluctant to use the public toilet as it was really dirty but i had no choice because my bladder was threatening to giveway there and then. So yeah, i surrendered and braved the ohmygoodnesssofreakingdisgusting toilet.

In the midst of juggling to avoid getting my shoes dirty and make sure i don't drop anything into the bowl, i saw a crumpled wad of pink paper with red writting on it. Hey... wait.. That's not paper, that's cash! COLD HARD CASH! So my immediate respond is to pick the money up and examine it first. For all you know, it might be fake.

And then i put the money into my pocket. Hey no one is in the toilet cubicle with me, so finders keepers :)

the end

Actually that's not the end, i came out of the toilet and 'innocently' went to the sink to wash my hands. A lady with a very worried face came rushing into the toilet and appeared to be looking for something. She looked left, right, high and low. Then she came walking towards me.

Many thoughts rushed through my head.
Should i act dumb and just keep it?
Or Shouldn't i?
Should i keep saying no til she gives up?
Aiya, just a bit of money only, give me as ang pow money laa...
But what if i make her angry then she got bunch of Tai Kors outside waiting to punch my lie-spinning face?
What if, she cat-fight with me here?
Never mind.. i got cheerleading muscles (quote kimmy :D)
But i'll dirty my shoes..eww....

But too late to assemble all my thoughts, she was already standing right in-front of me. She asked, worried but politely,"I lost my money, did u happened to see them?"

"Is it this? Here you go." was my answer as i took the money out of my pocket and handed it back to her. With a smile.

dang...Conscience took over my motor respond. It wasn't my fault, i meant to keep the money. I'm a money-minded, greedy and selfish bitch. NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Ok enough with the drama, so the night ended with my brother laughing back at me, telling me it's ok to give in to conscience. sigh. Karma's a bitch, too.

I hope this year would be a better than the year before, and i would again, chance upon a stack of cash lying around somewhere WITHOUT anybody around, waiting for me to pick it up without conscience kicking in.
Well at least i can live to tell everybody that i picked up a wad of cash and returned it to the rightful owner, just like the ones we read about in our Pendidikan Moral Textbook.

til then.