My family buys cheap groceries.
The grocery store cuts corners in order to reduce overhead.
Thus reducing the price of groceries.
One of the money saving schemes is
…they chain the carts together in a row.
You have to insert a quarter into the locking mechanism to get a cart.
When you’re finished with the cart,
you return it to the cart corral and get your quarter back.
It’s not a horrible inconvenience.
Unless you get to the store and discover you don’t have a quarter.
Which happened to me more than once.
Because I don’t plan ahead.
And so I put a handful of quarters in my car’s ashtray.
Now I can keep my reckless, unprepared grocery store habits
…without suffering the consequences.
Several months ago, it occurred to me that there might be other quarter-less, cart-less shoppers.
So I returned my cart to the corral and didn’t remove my quarter from the lock.
Pay it forward…
….twenty-five cents at a time.
As I walked away, a lady pushed her cart into the row next to me.
She took her quarter from her cart.
Then took the quarter from the cart I had just left.
Opportunity knocking…
…twenty-five cents at a time.
I’m not blaming her.
She didn’t do anything wrong.
….But I’m a comedian.
…I can’t just let this slide!
Lady! What’s the matter with you?
Did you think I forgot to retrieve my cash?
If so, why didn’t you say something like,
“Hey! You forgot your money!”
Because you saw a chance to profit from my carelessness!
You traded your integrity for twenty-five lousy cents!
Do you know what happened after you pocketed your ill-gotten gains?
A single mother of three, pregnant with her fourth, bedraggled and distraught, arrived at the cart corral without a quarter.
She fumbled in her purse, desperately hoping to find two-bits, losing her grip on her toddler’s hand.
The child darted across the parking lot, crossed a small ravine and disappeared into some thick brush.
A mother wolf scooped up the child in her powerful jaws and dashed away.
As I write these words, that child is being raised by the wolf pack as one of their own cubs.
The child’s grief stricken mother cries herself to sleep every night.
So I ask you:
…was it worth a quarter?
Think of others before you think of yourself.
Otherwise this tragic tale is for nothing.
‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 19:9
8 Responses
I left my cart quarter in the cup holder of my van. One of the kids told me my husband thought he’d “found” a quarter and tried to pocket it until he was told by said child it wasn’t “lost.” Maybe I’ll put a tract with it. 🙂
We have a car wash here that charges $16.99 to wash your car. They always give you the penney back and most people drop it in the jar. The penney jar is for children to come get a penney to ride the mechanical horse while their parents cars are being washed. Smiling children and happy patrons.
Out of curiosity, how many people returned the quarters to the kids when they returned the cart?
We did some youth ministry act of kindness kinda days here and there…one of them, a couple of kids sat outside said grocery store with a handful of quarters and “bought” carts for people. No tracts were involved…
Why the mention of “no tracts involved”?
Yeah, that’s pretty sad. I like leaving the cart there unlocked with a gospel tract draped over the handle. 🙂 Maybe if she saw that she wouldn’t be as likely to swipe the quarter…or at the very least have something to think about after the fact.
…or she’d litter the parking lot with it.
Ha, ha! Not in my experience. People always take them and read them.