I Dont Like Dishonesty
I had a college roommate who developed a serious illness that required heavy duty antibiotics. She had no health insurance and it was in the US, so she had to get her parents to send her the money, and then she had to get a friend to rush her to the nearest pharmacy in the nearest town.
Halfway through the evening I saw two of my other dormmates pick up a small bag from one of the sofas and go laughing in and out of the study and then through the hallway. They came back a few hours later and were giggling about what they had bought at the mall.
An hour later, my roommate who needed the antibiotics was frantically trying to find them. She said she might have left them in a small bag in the living room. I had an awful sinking feeling. She and the dorm monitor asked me if I had seen her medicine anywhere.
I asked them if the other two might have put them away somewhere, because they had picked up a small bag from the sofa and gone to the mall with it. No of course not, these were good people and they would never steal! I asked if I'd be able to search the drawers in the study. No, it was against the law, so I couldn't.
Nor could I accuse either of them of stealing or trading or exchanging them for anything else. I was an international student, and if things went too badly wrong I could get kicked out and sent home to a very abusive situation. The social dynamics in that dorm were already pretty awful. Besides, nobody believed anyone would do anything bad. So I kept quiet after that but felt terrible.
She never found that medicine, but somehow she survived without it. This was in the early '90's.
Halfway through the evening I saw two of my other dormmates pick up a small bag from one of the sofas and go laughing in and out of the study and then through the hallway. They came back a few hours later and were giggling about what they had bought at the mall.
An hour later, my roommate who needed the antibiotics was frantically trying to find them. She said she might have left them in a small bag in the living room. I had an awful sinking feeling. She and the dorm monitor asked me if I had seen her medicine anywhere.
I asked them if the other two might have put them away somewhere, because they had picked up a small bag from the sofa and gone to the mall with it. No of course not, these were good people and they would never steal! I asked if I'd be able to search the drawers in the study. No, it was against the law, so I couldn't.
Nor could I accuse either of them of stealing or trading or exchanging them for anything else. I was an international student, and if things went too badly wrong I could get kicked out and sent home to a very abusive situation. The social dynamics in that dorm were already pretty awful. Besides, nobody believed anyone would do anything bad. So I kept quiet after that but felt terrible.
She never found that medicine, but somehow she survived without it. This was in the early '90's.
