—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 7.73

One day, Johnny and his friend were sitting on a bench near a bus stop.

They were both unemployed for quite a while already, and they were on their way to a job interview. 

While waiting for their bus to arrive, there was a man walking in front of them. This man’s phone rang and picked it up.

But when he picked up his phone, along came with his wallet and fell down the street.

This man didn’t notice what happened.

Johnny and his friend saw what happened.

“Yes! It’s our lucky day!” Says the friend. “I hope it has a lot of cash in it“

But without saying a word, Johnny picked up the wallet and immediately ran to the owner to return the wallet.

The owner was thankful and offered some money as reward.

Johnny smiled and declined the offer.

“You might need the cash more than I do.“, says Johnny.

And when Johnny returned back to the bench near a bus stop, his friend, who looks annoyed, said “It was our lucky break!  Or at the least, you should’ve asked for a reward. Why did you do that?“

Johnny again smiled at his friend and answered “Because was the right thing to do.”

Looking puzzled, his friend just shrugged and continued to wait for their bus.

When we get asked on why did we do the right thing, the correct answer should always be “Because it was the right thing to do.” Let’s be our best version of ourselves by doing the right thing, even if we won’t get anything out of it.