Is This Five Dollars Yours?
I was queuing for a sinful cup of milk tea at Sweet Talk @ AMK Hub when a lady behind me called for my attention.
“Excuse me.” She pointed at a $5 note on the floor. “Did you drop that on the floor?”
I was fumbling around with the pockets on my bag at that time and I thought I might have dropped the note and said my thanks; picked the note up and stuffed it in my bag.
As I continued fumbling for loose change like any Singaporean looking to pay someone in denominations of 5 cents, I noticed a young woman doing the same fumbling with her bag right in front of me. Unlike me, who was looking for something that I may not have, she seemed to be looking for something that she had just a few moments ago.
The moment I saw her scanning the floor, I knew that $5 tucked in the warm pocket of my bag wasn’t mine.
I truthfully contemplated for a few seconds to keep the $5 so that I don’t look silly to the lady behind who saw me confidently pick up the money and claimed it as my own. But waves of guilt and chokeful of images of the young woman with no money but the $5 filled my head up.
“Hi…” I directed my voice at her. “Is this five dollars yours?”
She smiled and took the money and said, “Thanks!”
I quickly paid for my milk tea in the exact price and left quickly, blushing to what the lady and the young woman might have thought of me.
