Money is important just do not be a slave to it, I reckon.
Yesterday I took a cab to work as it was raining heavily. The cab took me to my office at SLF building through the Toa Payoh way, passed by Philips. As it passed through the electronic gantry at SLF building, a dollar was deducted from the cab’s cash card. Normally in most car park, the deduction will be void if the vehicle does not exceed the grace period. However, yesterday I noticed a tiny sticker sign that says the dollar deduction will not be void cos’ they do not practice grace period. The sticker is so small that I suspected then the cab driver did not notice it.
I reached my destination and was told that my cab fee was $7.90 and realised that the $1 gantry fee was not added. Then the one minute struggle began. My rational mind reasoned that it was unfair for me to pay that $1. Then I tried to justify by thinking it was not my fault that the driver did not see the sign, the fault was his and he had to bear the cost of that. However in my spirit, I was not at peace and found myself asking myself what is the value of $1 to me? Then I took the dollar from my wallet and told the driver that he under-charged me. He was surprised at the discovery of the sign and was even more surprise why I did that.
You should see the smile on his face and mine and realised the value of $1. I am not sure whether his smile was related to the monetary gain or simply the joy of knowing a little warmth in this world. As for me, it was definitely something worthwhile – just the right thing to do at that time and it felt good doing it.
