honesty cannot be bought

honesty could be part upbringing, part inborn. as a young officer, earning $2-3k salary, it may be presumed that the temptation to take advantage for a few dollars would be highest. nobody taught me what to do when i submitted my transport claims. i either underclaimed or round down the cents to the lower dollar unit. and this was the first instruction i gave to my son on his first day to work. better to underclaim that over claimed by a few cents. as a young officer, i was in a position that did a lot of entertainment and meetings with clients. often there would be the little gifts from appreciative clients. what should i do with them? my secretary told me standard procedure was to submit a list of all gifts received to the head of administration. i was as innocent as a school boy and did exactly as told. to my pleasant surprise they were all returned to me for keeps. they were not expensive stuff. my next surprise was to overheard that the head of administration was shock at my submission. because nobody ever done that, not even my predecessor. the bigger surprise and shock came several months later. my innocence had offended many people. for it had made them looked bad. and i was bad. these are stories of a young salaried employee who would be grateful for every dollar saved. who would imagine people who are worth millions and with monthly paychecks in excess of $20k, to stoop to claim what was not deserving? the conventional wisdom is that once a person has enough, gone pass the stage of wants, they are expected to be honest. how wrong this assumption is in reality. maybe that's the reason why i am as poor as a church mouse.