I’m sure you’ve gotten the chain email story about the young boy who sits down at a diner and asks the waitress how much two scoops of ice cream cost. When she replies with the cost, he only buys one scoop, so that he can leave her a tip.

I had an experience this week where I was walking the boys back from school. They wanted to stop into a local “colmado” (tiny store) to buy a “cosita” (a small item). Each boy was given five pesos (15 cents), and they had to be very careful on what they spent their money on, because they usually never get money.

We stepped inside and Josias yelled at the lady behind the counter to get him a piece of candy. She took his five pesos and gave him three back and went to get his candy. He stared at the money in his hand and looked back at her and said “Give me one more!” She dropped the gum into his hand and he handed it to me, and he waited patiently for her to get another piece of gum for him. He was now left with one peso and one piece of gum, he said to me “OK, let’s go Aaron.”

I was a bit shocked, Josias just smiled.

Maybe the best part of this story is that later on that evening when Josias’ gum got stale and he asked me for one more peso so that he could buy another piece of gum for himself. Haha.