A Lesson Learnt...

Some of the most humbling moments in life come in our interactions with people who we see as less educated and hence less wiser than us. I was doing my Masters at USC and on my first day of work ever.The job I got was at a cafe and while my friends got jobs at the counter or cooking, I got a cleaning job.I was wondering whether I came all the way from India for doing this but i comforted myself by thinking "wht the hell..I wudnt need to depend on anyone for money".So I swept the floor and this one cent coin was lying on the ground...I kept sweeping it along not picking it up bcoz it was worthless until a young mexican guy i met earlier... a school dropout, came over to me, picked up the penny, put it in my pocket and said..."Bro when u see a penny lyin on the floor...pick it up...it will bring u good luck one day".I was totally ashamed of my conduct. In India I never gave a damn for all those 5 paise and 10 and 25 paise coins. But from that day on I picked up every penny lying on the floor or change from shopping and I put it in a box.I never used it and it just kept piling up.Two years later I was out of school, quit my job and hunting for the next one and 4 weeks on, my money was almost over and I kept going hungry. Then i remembered my penny box...took it to the change breaker machine at Ralph's at after all the coins that went in there....I got a "whopping" eight dollars...that meant atleast 6OO pennies were there in my box besides the few dimes and nickels. I thought about what to do with this money and decided the best way to make it worthwhile was to have a hearty dinner and walked in the direction of Pizza Hut................