The drill

I hesitate to share this because it's somewhat personal and a little embarassing. Some might think I'm boasting. In fact, I'm confessing.
A few days back I bought a bunch of stuff at Home Depot. Among the items was a high end, professional drill. The gal at the register rung it all up and then when it came to the drill, she had to take off the anti-theft device. They're new devices that have wires that go all around the merchandise and terminate in a hub called a spider. The gal had never removed one before and had to get help to take it off. After some considered effort, she finally got the thing off.
She rung me up and I paid. The final bill seemed low to me, but I thought that maybe something was on sale and I got lucky. I was in a hurry and didn't pay much attention. Later as I was driving home, I realized that the total was actually less than the cost of the drill and I noticed that I hadn't been charged for the drill. It was a fairly expensive piece of equipment and for a split second (or more) I thought, wow, lucky, a free drill. My conscience took over and I felt terrible the rest of the night. I couldn't wait to get back and pay so I could feel decent about myself. In fact, I felt bad about even having the thought of keeping it without paying. The truth is, and this is fairly personal, I guess. I don't think I could have felt right about praying or even facing Christine or the kids if I hadn't made it right. My family makes me want to be a better person.
So, the next morning I went back and explained what happened. The guy at the desk about fell over. People don't seem to call short charges to their attention much. He couldn't believe that I was returning to pay for something I didn't get charged for. He asked "Well, how did you get it out with all the security?" I told him that the gal must have gotten distracted with taking off the security device and forgotten to charge me. He said "Wow, that's a really honest thing to do." I said, "Well, a guy has to live with himself." What I didn't say is how bad I felt about even thinking of not paying for it. Everytime he congratulated me for my honesty, I just felt worse.
The experience reaffirmed a few important lessons I've learned over time :

• No matter how secure you try to make a store, home, shop or factory, there are always ways past the security.
• Security measures sometimes cause more trouble than they solve.
• Social ills cannot be completely solved by devices (or more laws)
• There's no replacement for guilt (or the light of Christ)
• There's no replacement for family for taming the natural man