Sneaky

Jay's school had a "book-drive" this week. Kids could bring in their spare change and dump it in a tub in their classroom. At the end of the week, the money was to be collected and used to purchase new books for their brand new library.
I happily sent Jay with some spare change. That night, when I got home from work, Jay was waiting for me in the garage (not something I'm use to). I didn't even have a chance for my foot to hit the pavement and he was right up next to me confessing what he had done. He admitted that instead of putting all the change in the tub, he had taken some and kept it for himself. Obviously, I was disappointed and my first thought was why he was confessing this to me. Had he gotten caught by someone? I asked Jay if his dad had found out about his sneakiness and Jay said that Yes, his dad was aware of it. I told Jay I needed time to think about what the consequence would be.
After dinner, in private, I asked Mike how he had figured out what Jay had done. Mike said he didn't figure it out. He said as soon as school was out and Jay saw Mike, he confessed what he had done. Secretly, Mike and I high-fived each other over this accomplishment. Sure, what Jay did was wrong but he knew it was wrong and confessed it to the two people who love him most and are trying to shape him into the man we want him to be.
That night I asked Jay how he felt about what he had done and he said, "Bad." His consequence was to dig into his own money. The next morning I walked Jay into his classroom just to watch him dump the change into the tub. I told him what he had done was sneaky and I needed to see for myself he was delivering the money to its proper place but I also told him I was proud of him to being honest and telling the truth.