The RM5 Lesson

He took out his thin, worn wallet. And all he had in it were just a few one ringgit notes. Five to be exact. RM5, that's all. Was that to last him for the day, the next few days or...

No, it can't be that RM5 was all he had! Have you not heard of the ATM?

But what if that was all that he had? How could one survive with just RM5 even for one day in Kuala Lumpur?

That could be the stark reality. It hit me. There could be people like this slim security guard who just does not have enough. No wonder he was earlier reluctant to help me break my RM10 for me to give him RM5 to pay the car wash boy, who comes by the building and washes whatever cars and moves on.

The security guard, whom I always notice to wear a smile, was now embarassed for baring all just to help me. He cast his eyes on the ground after he handed me the RM5 change for my RM10.

As I drove off, the sight of near empty wallet replayed over and over again in my mind. In between thoughts of "count your blessings" and "how unfortunate" were flashes of the past when I too experiend times when the pay cheque could not last a month. Those were the days when they were always still so many days before month end.

Those days have not revisted me since then until that day of the RM5 lesson in life. It was a reminder of the harsh realities, of the need for prudence in spending, of the unfortunate, of how generosity is the antidote for greed and all kinds of cravings. It taught me a lot... and this time, the teacher was a security guard.