A Penny’s Worth of Honesty

This story has been published several times including in the Ensign (magazine published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day-Saints). It is a particularly powerful lesson in teaching honesty and perhaps an even more important lesson may be recognizing that adults can learn a powerful message from children even as young as four years old.

After completing my education, my family and I moved back to Utah and lived with my parents until I could find a job. Our son Paul, who was almost four, made friends in the neighborhood and one afternoon he was playing with them when some apples were delivered to our neighbors. They weren’t home so the apples were left on the front porch. The boys saw this.


Paul brought some home to share with us. He was truthful when asked where he got them. We explained that what he and the other boys had done was stealing and he needed to apologize for taking the apples. We also told him that he would have to use his own money (he had a piggy bank) to replace the apples.


We took him to the store and helped him pick out the nicest apples and with tears in his eyes, he reached into his pocket to retrieve his money. When we got home, he took the apples to the neighbors and apologized for taking their apples.


A few days later, Grandma took him to the grocery store with her. At the produce section, she sampled a grape. Paul watched his grandma as she chewed and swallowed the grape and then asked her if she paid for the grape. “No,” she replied. “Did you steal it Grandma?”


She tried to ignore this question, which he kept asking over and over, but Paul was confused and also persistent. After all, hadn’t he done something similar and gotten into trouble?


While driving home Paul asked one more time if she had eaten the grape without paying for it.


“Yes, Paul, I did. Do you think I should go back to the store and pay for it?” Paul said yes, and Grandma replied, “So do I”.


Although she was almost home, she turned the car around and returned to the store and taking Paul by the hand, she went up to the clerk and said, “Sir, I ate a grape without paying for it. My grandson convinced me that I should come back to pay for it.” With that, she plunked a penny down on the counter and walked out the door with a smiling grandson.


The clerk and the people in line looked at her strangely, but Paul was beaming with pride. Despite the embarrassment that returning to the store to pay for a single grape may have caused, Grandma helped Paul understand that honesty should be part of everyone’s life.


As parents we need to remember the part that our example plays in the development of our children.


Happy Failing Forward,


Calvert Cazier

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Originally published 
Cazier, C.F., Ensign, A Penny’s Worth of Honesty, Feb. 1994, p. 37

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