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In response to a teacher who handled a theft wisely (for his story see the link in the first comment below.)I posted the following.
Remarkable story. I had a similar experience and handled it differently.
I had an employee in my medical practice steal $800. It took me several hours to determine who had stolen the money.
I called her in to my private office. I told her to call her father, a prominent business man.
When he arrived at my office I told her to tell her father what she had done. She said, “You tell him.” I refuse and told her, I would not accuse her to her father, she would have to confess.
After 15 minutes she told him what she had done.
Her father reached into his coat pocket and pulled a paper out. I asked what he was doing and he said that he was going to write me a check.
I protested that he was not there to give me $800. I told him that my future was not conditioned on getting my money back.
I added but you daughter’s future is at stake. She had two options. One was to move back home; get back under her father’s authority or I would call the DA and prosecute her.
You see she had a drug addict boy friend and she was stealing for him.
Is he:
1. Returned home
2. Remained under
her father’s grave guidance
3. Stayed in her job
4. Continued to handle money
5. Made restoration
6. Broke up with her boyfriend
7. I would work with her
Her father said he had never heard of such a thing.
Both finally agreed. She stayed in her job and made restitution. A year later she moved to Houston.
In December 2005, on Christmas Eve, I received a telephone call. I was pleasant but didn’t know who the caller was.
After hanging up, I told the story to Carolyn and I it suddenly occurred to me that the caller could have been the young woman described above.
The events of the theft happened 20 years before 2005. With caller ID, I called the lady back. It was the same person.
She related to me that she had a family and children. She told me that the experience in my office had changed her life and she had a successful marriage and family.
I had tears in my eyes when I hung up. I have never had the same experience again. Sometimes, we only get one chance to do it right.
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