Honesty is Always the Best Policy

See this car?

See the shiny silver paint?

See the BMW symbol?

Feel the expensive value?

Now pretend you are just getting into your car and the wind blows your door wide open and "thud"... it hits that shiny, silver car.

First reaction:  Check for a mark.

Results:  Yes, there's totally a mark.  A white smudge from the paint of your own car, along with a tiny dent where it hit.

We'll call this a slight "ding."

Crap.  Now what?

Result:  Vigorously start rubbing the white mark off the silver car... only all of your efforts are going absolutely no where.  Lick your finger; keep rubbing... rub harder!  Nope, still nothing.

Still crappy.

Leave a note?  You're poor! You have no money!  This rich car person will suck your bank account dry if they want to totally fix this "ding" and get all their money's worth.  You can't handle that.

Result:  Drive away and feel totally guilty.  You know you can't just leave it like that.  You assume the owner of the car is at the park playing softball, but you don't know how to find the owner.  You assume the car will be there for another hour, so you keep driving.  You call a few "life line" friends to seek advice, and finally one friend has a good answer:

"Call David."  He's your State Farm insurance guy.  Also your brother-in-law, which makes it even better!  

By the time he calls you back, you've driven 10 minutes away to visit your sister and her brand new baby.  You tell David what happened and ask for his "professional advice" on what to do.  Is a ding really all that bad?  Will this BMW person go crazy on you?  David's suggestion is to leave a note with your phone number.

Dang.  You knew you'd have to do that.

Luckily there is still someone at work where you originally left.  You call him, dictate the note he is to write on a post-it, and ask him to leave it on the nice, shiny, silver BMW with a white smudge on their door.  Then you hope that person never calls.

Change Scene.

It's the next morning.  Your phone rings and it's not a number you recognize.  You suddenly realize BMW person never called last night... but this is probably them.  You let it go to voice mail and wait anxiously.  A few minutes later you feel totally nervous and listen to the voice mail that was left most likely by the BMW person.

Voice mail:

(A nice, friendly lady voice)

"Hi, this is __________, the owner of the BMW last night.  I wouldn't worry about it. Yeah, it left a ding, but I know accidents happen so it's fine.  Call me if you want to talk more or have any questions."

RELIEF!!!

You feel SOOOOO happy and SOOOO glad you did the right thing by leaving the note.  Otherwise you would be haunted the rest of your life thinking, "WHAT IF?" and wondering if that BMW person is hating your guts, trying to hunt you down.

But you were honest.  You owned up to your mistake.  And you were blessed with a kind BMW owner who made your day.

You call the nice BMW lady back and thank her for her kindness.

Congratulations.  :)