Guernsey Honesty Boxes And Shops

When I was little, I use to read the quote from the BCBP or Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals. It goes like this, " Be honest even if others are not, even if others will not, and even if others cannot". This quote is also written on the wall of my elementary school. So growing up, I have always valued honesty and try to exercise it as much as I can, maybe except for some occasional little white lies to spare other people's feelings.

Lying has always been quite difficult for me. Because I too wish other people to be honest towards me. Honesty equates to honour, integrity, and sincerity. It is golden. It is not always easy to practice. And these days we find that sometimes people just can't be honest anymore. We then develop a sense of mistrust and we become cautious towards other people, specially people we barely know. We lock our houses, put security codes in our devices, install surveillance cameras, and other measures to ensure that we aren't cheated on or scammed.

So it was much to my surprise when I first wandered the tiny roads and streets of Guernsey, to see a plentiful of honesty boxes. I remembered thinking out loud, "Wow the Guerns are too trusting! They believe so much in honesty and humanity. Are they for real?" I was truly baffled and amazed.

For those of you who have not heard of honesty boxes, it is simply a way of charging for a product or service using the honour system. Usually it is just a box with the products and the price label on them and a little tin can or piggy bank to put your payment in. These boxes are completely unmanned and unsupervised. So people may or may not pay for the goods.

Here in Guernsey most of the products sold are flowers, fruits, veggies, homemade preserves, firewood and kindle, crafts and DIYs, fresh eggs, baked goodies, and second hand stuff. Normally they prefer cash payments, but some accepts barter or trade, one shop even accepts pay pass or card.

Generally, I would say people proved to be quite honest and trustworthy in Guernsey. As if they were not, this system would have been long gone. Some people when they cannot pay leaves a note and comes back the next day with the payment. Although this is not always the case, and sometimes, we hear in the social media or news about some disappointing people who does not pay for the goods and even vandalise the honesty box. Most of these culprits were found to be teenagers. This makes me really sad and worried how the new generation does not have the same honour and sense of responsibility as the older generation does.

To conclude this article, I don't really know until how long this tradition will last. There are a lot of honest people out there, but society seems to be getting more and more corrupted these days. If we don't teach the new generation well and inculcate the values of honesty in them while they are young, we are at risk of having a troublesome world. Thankfully, it is not yet too late. We can still focus on nurturing the value of honesty in our families and in our homes. Hopefully 50 years from now, honesty boxes will not be just a thing of the past.

My dear readers, it is a beautiful thing to trust and be trusted, let us not lose it. Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think of my article. Cheers!