An incident happened some time ago when I first started working in Singapore at Tanjung Pagar's Raeburn Park. A Chinese Singaporean who is quite a regular customer came by one morning to have his usual morning "Kopi O" fix. I turned around to make the "Kopi O" for him and when I handed the cup to him, he smiled broadly and gave me a dollar for the coffee. H tentatively looked around to see that there were no one looking and then handed an envelope to me and said, "This is for you!"
"What is it...?" and before I could finish my question, he turned and walked to the table to drink his coffee. Morning is usually quite a busy time as many of the people come by to have their breakfast and coffee and so, I did not think much about the envelope and just stuck it into my back pocket.
At about 9.30am when it is quieter, we normally have our own breakfast together with the rest of the workers. I remembered the envelope and took it out to open it and to my surprise, there were two crisp SGD50 dollar notes inside. I quickly put it back in the envelope as I did not want my colleagues to see as thoughts ran through my mind. "Why did he gave me a hundred dollars?", "What am I suppose to do with it?"... and on and on. As I pondered a little longer, I decided that I have to return the money to him. I had already planned what to do. When he comes the next time, I will hand him the envelope with the money in it and say, "Thank you... but I cannot accept your money!"
The next morning, he came by again but my colleague was standing next to me and I could not carry out my plan. Then again, the next morning, he came by for his coffee fix and I did as I planned. After he paid for his coffee, I handed him the envelop and said, "I cannot accept your money but Thank you anyway!" He looked a little hurt but still smiled and took it back. If not for another lady standing behind him, he might have resisted a little.
That evening, I recalled the incident... and wondered... if I should have just kept it???
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