In these days where personal and hidden interests are at hand
to many people, it is a big question if honesty still exists in our heart. Amidst of temptations, struggles, poverty,
and ambitions in life, it becomes difficult today to become honest. While we are surrounded by different people,
lies and deception direct or indirect were inadvertently made. Is there still honest in these days?
This has been a big question too in my mind. Seems like our daily life is a big political
arena where survival is a matter of materials standard. Being honest alone is not enough but smart
and witty too, otherwise people around you will use you. Trust yourself only and treat everybody
around you are your enemies. But these
told me wrong. When I went to Banates,
there is one store there that lectured me that honesty still lives in
everyone’s heart. The Honesty Coffee
Shop in Ivana Batanes brings back us from the basic root of being honest.
Truly one of a kind, the Honesty shop is a store that
literally has no vendor to look after the merchandise and attend the
customers. It is a shop that is left
without clerk or closed circuit television (CCTV) to watch the customers. Everyone can go inside and can freely move,
sit, relax and have some coffee. It is
self-service, you can get all you want where all items have price tag on each. The customers have to write the items they
have bought and leave the payment in the drop box. It is expected that everyone who entered the
store are honest enough to pay their purchase exactly. If your pay needs change, you will consider
it as charity.
It all started when the sales of the store slope down due to
the closure of the nearby port where most of their customers worked. Because of this, the owner of the store had
to focus on farming and help her husband in their cane vinegar production. Although she decided to continue the
operation of their store but her focus is needed on the farm, and consequently
the store was left unattended. What
happened then was people can still buy on the store and just leave their pay
on. What the store only held was the
honesty of their customers. And it went
on and on until such time it was heard up to the nearby towns and the rest is
the story.
Honesty store in Batanes proved that honesty is still the best
policy, and it proved that honesty and trust blend smoothly. If each one will be honest, then subsequently
trust will follow next and you have to be honest in order to keep that trust. The Honesty store touches our in-born
truthfulness. When you get there, you
will feel nothing but to be honest and this value will prevail in everyone’s
heart.
We heard the news about the driver, janitor, and guard who
returned the cash they found. These
people are worth and deserve salute for they have installed in their heart and
mind that honesty is still the best policy.
For anything not yours should be given to the owner, a childhood lesson
that our parents and teachers taught us.
Let us learn from the children.
If everyone has a child-like heart, sincere and honest faith will lead
the world into place.
Poverty transforms people to deceit. There are many opportunists who are taking
advantage the situations. Life in Invana
Batanes is not that comfortable but they maintained their childhood lesson of
being honest. For them, what really
matter is the character that became well-known not only in Batanes but also
across the whole country. And this is
their legacy that they can pass from their generation to next generation.
By Alex V. Villamayor
May 16, 2014
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