The little big things | honesty : 小非小｜诚实

 In 2016, I would like to start writing about the small daily happenings in my life, which are related to important qualities. Today, I would like to share a few real cases about honesty.

2016年开启小非小系列小文章。此系列旨在从生活中真实的“小事”彰显“非小”的珍贵品质。今天要和大家分享的小事有关于诚实。

Time: 01/2016                      Place: London

Michela is a Bulgarian, who came to London alone, making a living as a cleaner. Besides cleaning, she also makes time to learn accounting in an evening school. She has been cleaning for us regularly for more than two years. This was her first visit in the New Year, when my partner was out and I was alone at home. She came when I was preparing lessons, so I didn’t pay attention to her arriving time. When she finished cleaning, I paid her in cash of four hours’work. She checked and immediately said: "It’s too much, I only worked for three and half hours today." Then she returned the half hour’s cash to me. 

This is a true reflection of the Chinese idiom “poor people do not necessarily have poor quality”. You accept what you are entitled to. Even though you might be given more by mistake, you should return the extra honestly. Probably just because of this quality, she is so poplar that she is always been offered more cleaning hours than she can handle.

时间：01/2016                 地点：伦敦

Michela 是保加利亚人，只身一人来到伦敦，以清洁工的工作维持生计。除了平时做清洁工作以外， 她还攒了学费，在夜校学会计。她定期来给我们家做清洁已经两年多了。这次是她新年第一次来，我先生出去办事了， 我一个人在家。她来的时候我正在备课，所以也没有注意具体时间。当她打扫完毕了，我就给她劳动报酬。我感觉大概是4个小时，所以就给了她4个小时的现金。她接过后一看立即说：“ 太多了，我今天只工作了三个半小时”。然后她就硬要把多余的现金还给我。

这件事情是真真实实地反应了“人穷志不穷”这一说。付出多少劳动，就诚实地接收多少回报。即使别人多给了，那也要如实地退回去。这品质多值得学习啊。可能也正因为如此，所以她的活多的都接不过来。

Time: 10/2015                       Place: London

Anna is a Polish dentist, who has set up a dental clinic in London. Due to its convenient location and good service, we our teeth regularly checked and cleaned here. Since my partner is from a dentist family, he goes with me every time I go to the clinic. On one hand, he can help me if I need anything; On the other hand, he and Anna can share some new information on dental technology. As usual, this time we went together and everything went smoothly. After everything was done, I got up and paid the bill, while Anna and my partner were still chatting. When I came back from payment, they were talking address update. My partner was saying: “Since last September, we have moved to County Hall apartments”. Anna was surprised and said: "Really? I didn’t know that. Let me rearrange the bill for you then, as we promise to offer the residents of County Hall 10% discount!" Then she immediately asked the cashier to refund us and gave us a new bill with 10% off.

We were surprisingly impressed. Usually, even if it was a kind dentist, s/he might only have said: next time please remind me to give you the discount; or, perhaps some dentists would simply just not mention it. However, Anna gave us the discount even though we did not know about it, despite the fact that we had already settled the bill. Her professionalism and honesty should be highly valued.

时间：10/2015                 地点：伦敦

Anna是波兰人，在伦敦开了个牙医诊所。由于离我们家近服务有好，我们定期看牙和洗牙都是去她家诊所。由于我先生牙医家庭出生，所以我每次去看牙洗牙，先生都会陪我一起去，一来可以和Anna一起聊聊牙医技术信息和趣事，二来也想间接起到一个工作质量监督工作。这次也和往常一样顺利，于是我起身后就直接去缴费了。缴费回来后，Anna和我先生正聊着， 还谈到了住所的话题。这时先生就说，哦对了，从去年九月我们就搬到市政厅公寓去了。这是Anna惊讶的说：“是吗？ 我还不知道呢！赶紧让收银给你重新结账，因为我们诊所承诺给所有市政厅居民九折优惠”。说着她就让收银立即给我们重新做了账单，退了10% 给我们。

我们特别感动。通常情况下，即使这个牙医再好，也可能只会说：下次来的时候一定提醒我给你们打折啊。或者有的牙医发现你不知道此优惠，就干脆不提此事。像Anna这样的即使结了账了，还再把优惠退给我们，真是难能可贵。

Time: 9/2014                         Place: Brussels  

My partner is passionate about wine. He orders wine from a supplier regularly. This time he ordered three boxes. When it was delivered home, he found out that there were half a dozen more bottles than he paid for. My first reaction to this was: wow, we were so lucky. We got 6 free bottles to drink. However, he immediately responded seriously: “ I will email the supplier to tell them the truth. Maybe they made ​​a mistake. We can not drink the wine if it was not meant for us”. Hearing this, I was so ashamed. A few days later, the supplier replied: “Indeed, it was a mistake. However, we would like to change the mistake into a reward for your loyalty to us. Finally my partner smiled, saying: “Great, we have got 6 free bottles to drink”! 

Although in the end, the 6 bottles were still free to us, we were happier to drink them after telling the truth.

时间：9/2014                      地点：布鲁塞尔

我先生嗜好红酒，所以他定期会去红酒商那订购。这次他又订购了三箱，货送到家后，他发现和付的钱对比， 多了半打。他一告诉我，我的第一反应是：我们太幸运了，多了6瓶免费的红酒喝。没想到先生立即严肃地说：我一会给酒商写邮件，告诉他们多送了6瓶。或许他们弄错了，咱不能白喝人家地酒。听了他地话后我羞愧不已，连连点头。后来酒商回复说：确实说弄错来，不如将错就错，把这6瓶红酒当成对你们作为我们地忠诚客户地奖励吧。这回先生才开心地说：太好了，我们多了6瓶免费的红酒喝！

虽然到最后，红酒还是免费地给我们了，但是诚实地告诉他们后，我们喝得心安理得。

Time: 3/2012                       Place: Beijing 

Back then I was still not buying flight tickets fully electronically. Tickets were booked online and then delivered to the door. The payment method was cash on arrival. That afternoon I received a ticket on time. I paid in cash, which was prepared in an envelope. After the delivery guy left, I started to sort out my cash to pay the utility fee. Unexpectedly, I found out that there was a bank note of one hundred missing. Then I thought: It was so silly of me. I must have given one hundred more to the delivery guy by mistake. I regretted so much for my carelessness. Then I said to myself: even if this was the case, there was no way to get it back. However, After a while, I wouldn’t give up the possibility of finding out the truth, so I called the delivery guy to ask him about it. He said: “Don’t worry, I still have your envelop in my hand and I haven’t mix it with other money. Let me see”. He opened it, and as expected, he found an extra one hundred Yuan in it. He continued: “Yes there is an extra bank note of one hundred. I'm still not far. I can return it to you now”. Hearing this, I was so touched. He came back to return the money, and I gave him a small gift to express my gratitude to him. 

In this situation, he could have put that extra money to his own pocket, but he didn’t. Perhaps his wage of that whole day would be less than one hundred Yuan, but he chose to be honest and tell the truth, and even give the money to me all the way back. How can one not be moved by this? So the next day, I called his company to praise him. Probably because the customer service staff often receive calls of complaints, they usually sound very careful and serious. This time it was a call of praise, they were so happy and excited. Staff with such a quality should be known and rewarded, so that we could all learn from him.

时间：3/2012                      地点：北京

那时候我买飞机票还没有完全电子化， 都是在网上订票然后选择送票上门再付款。那天下午按约定时间收到了机票，我就把准备好的现金信封给了送票员。送票员走后，因为马上要交水电费，所以又打算拿家里的现金，结果发现少了一张一百的。我当时一懵，心想：不是刚刚多给了一张一百的给送票员了吧。心里后悔不及，觉得即使是，那也追不回了。后来想了想又不甘心，还是决定打电话再问问，把事情弄清楚。我拨通了送票员的电话，告诉了他事情。他说：别担心，你给我的现金信封我还原封未动，让我看看。他打开一看一数，果然多了一张一百的。他说：是多了一百，我现在还没出四环，不然我给你送回去？听了之后我太感动了，他送钱回来之后我给了他一个小礼物，以表示我的感谢之情。

在这种情况下，送票员完全可以说没有多，然后把那一百元放到自己的腰包。或许他那一天的工钱还不到一百元，但是，他选择了诚实相告， 还不辞辛劳地又给我把钱送了回来。此举怎能不叫人感动？于是，第二天，我给送票员的公司打了售后客服电话。大概大多客服员接到的都是投诉电话，所以都很谨慎严肃。一听我的电话说是要表扬他们的员工，客服人员也高兴不已。好的品质，就要彰显出来，让大家都一起学习。

Life is full of small cases like this, and honesty makes life more beautiful.

生活就是由这样的一些小事串成的， 而诚实，让我们的生活更美好。