Honesty, integrity and gestures of ‘good will’ are ideals we all aspire to uphold.

Andrea Lessing, a mother and employee at Goodwill in Norman, Oklahoma, has proven that these qualities aren’t just a fleeting notion, but a way of life.

On what seemed like a typical Sunday, Lessing arrived early and started her usual job of sorting and placing items on the floor for sale. Andrea noticed a couple of old sweaters wrapped around what she thought were books.

After pushing them aside to get to other items, she decided she needed to get these ‘books’ out and put them away in the proper place.

She unwrapped the sweater and discovered a stack of $100 bills. She counted $42,000 in cash.

She initially thought they must be fake but after telling her co-worker to look at them, they both realized the money could be real. Alongside the money was documentation and the owner’s name.

For many, finding $42,000 in cash that was accidentally donated would be very tempting to claim. There was only one option for Andrea…she had to do the right thing.

“I told my supervisor and we tracked the owners down and returned the money.”

When asked why she decided to speak up about the discovery, she had her reasons.

“I have a six year old daughter. I just want to teach her that kindness, honesty and integrity can get you a long way in life.”

Andrea was recognized by Goodwill Industries of Central Oklahoma CEO, Jim Priest, JD.

“The actions of Andrea and our Goodwill organization are real life examples of one of our core values: integrity.”

“Andrea showed integrity when she turned in the money and Goodwill showed its integrity as an organization by tracing the donors so we could return the money. Andrea could have kept the money and Goodwill could have kept the money, but integrity is doing the right thing and it’s a core value we strive to live out every day.”

Andrea was surprised and shocked when the owner decided to award her with a $1,000 for her actions.

“I just want to say thank you because he was a blessing,” she said. “I thought I blessed him, but he turned right around and blessed me. He restored my faith that there are really good people out there even through this pandemic. We don’t know their situation so it’s better to just be kind.”

Andrea has exciting plans for her $1,000 reward.

“The money is just a blessing. It will go toward raising my daughter and throwing her a birthday party this summer.”

It isn’t out of the ordinary for Goodwill employees to find loose change, or a few dollars and occasionally a large bill among donated items.

“Normally we have no way of knowing who the money belongs to,” Frank Holland, Vice President of Donated Goods at Goodwill, said. “Even if we wanted to try to give it back to someone, there was no way to find who that person was.”

The discovery not only had the owner’s details, it was the largest cash find ever reported for the organization’s Central Oklahoma locations in its 85-hear history, according to a Goodwill representative. It’s also one of the biggest cash finds of any Goodwill store.

Andrea’s decision to give the money back to the owner was a no-brainer for her.

Money doesn’t last forever but the powerful wisdom she is passing on to her daughter will undoubtedly make a permanent impression for years to come.

“No legacy is so rich as honesty.” – William Shakespeare.

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Source: Goodwill Industries of Central Oklahoma, mypositiveoutlooks.com, YouTube Fox59News