Cheating.

I remember in my youth when I would play with my brothers and they would cheat and I would get so mad that I would not play with them again for a long time.

Cheating has always been a part of family life, even more so when the members of the family are children who always bet on winning. In my case I remember that we were lucky enough that one of my dad's employees, who drove a cab, would leave some candy on the table for us every day. In the morning each of the 5 siblings would take their bag of candy or cookies or salty treats. If we liked it, we would eat it in one sitting and if we didn't like it, we would leave it to bet on the cards.

In the afternoons after homework we played cards. They were simple and common games here in my country. Games like "carga a la burra", "Seguidillas" and others. The most mischievous ones made us lose. We didn’t realize at first that they were cheating,  but when we did realize that only one person won all the goodies over and over again we realized that they were indeed cheating and we didn't trust them again.

But not only children cheat, many times I saw my siblings get together with their friends and then argue because someone cheated. The arguments became very strong but without getting to physical violence, it was only verbal and without rudeness because they knew they were in a family home.

But cheating is not only in games. In class they also cheat. I remember once when I was taking my English final exam, the teacher sat us without order, that way we couldn’t sit next to our friends and help one another, but we all knew each other there.

I was doing well on my final exam but in front of me a classmate of mine was going for her remedial exam. That is, she had another chance to pass and she would have to take another exam if she didn't.

She knew that I had no problem with basic English and when I finished my test she whispered to me from the front to tell her the answers. I am very bad at cheating on tests.

I looked straight ahead many times and I could tell that the teacher was only occasionally looking at the students. So I was bold and asked her to pass me her test on the other side, that is, on her left side. She passed it to me and I passed her mine thinking that the teacher might get up and then we would be in trouble.

I told her to wait, she ducked her head as if writing and I settled down to answer her test. I finished it and checked again to see if the teacher wasn't looking our way and passed her test back to her. There I breathed again and then I went to hand in my exam and wait for my partner to come out.

She was very grateful, when then they gave the notes back. Mine was the highest grade and she passed her exam with a grade she never had. She passed.

Even though it was to help someone, cheating is not good. But for what it's worth, this is a subject that would not help her learn to be a better professional. I hope she didn't make a habit of it for other subjects… Or maybe she was used to it.

When I was in college I decided to cheat in one subject and it cost me dearly. The person who offered to give a copy of the final exam to her friends, including me, got into trouble, or so he told me. I think he just wanted to get money out of us and he succeeded. He told us that he had been caught taking the exam and he had to pay to shut him up and he wouldn't give us the exam. So it was a lesson. I should never have accepted his offer to cheat in the first place and secondly I deserved to have to pay money that I didn't have to clean up a supposed embarrassing call on my person.

Over time I always maintained my decision to be honest about copying my friends' answers on exams. They know it wasn't my forte to do that, let others do it. I'm too nervous and I also didn't want to get a grade that wasn't mine.

There are also cheaters selling anything that allows them to get money, products, clothes, anything. You always have to look at things twice with a lot of caution.

The most dishonest can even sell damaged products as if they were new.

I sell plants in my garage. I take great care that my plants are well rooted and have a trial period at home and then go to the place where they are displayed for sale. Afterwards, if the customer tells me that his plants die, my conscience is clear. I know that the owners did not know how to take care of them because they leave here without defects. Above all, I take care of giving them many indications about water, sun, and the place where they will be placed in order to be more efficient in the transfer of the plant to another home.

There are also traps in love, and that is a chapter that is very complicated to tell. It only remains for me to say that if people are dishonest with their own personality, I have no doubt that they will also be dishonest with others. And no relationship thrives on lies and cheating. Love is clean. We have to base friendship, love, family on honesty because lies have short legs. It falls under its own weight and the traps are discovered and it hurts a lot to know about them.

This is a post in response to the suggestion of friend @JonicaBradley on the theme of the week: cheating.

I invite my sister, user @rodriguezpct to participate in it. She is new to the platform and I want her to feel welcome as a new user from me.