Reward Money

Alfonso was sweating as he mopped one of the hallways of the hospital, but he did his job nevertheless. “My family is depending upon me,” he said to himself, “I don’t like doing this job, but it’s the only job I can get.”

His mopping led him to inside the hospital cafeteria. He paused as he looked at all the doctors being admired by the nurses, “I wish I was a doctor. Then I’ll have plenty of money to provide for my family.”

He was particularly irritated with Dr. Raoul, “That young doctor, barely out of medical school and he’s now rich. Of all the doctors here in the hospital, he has the latest and the most expensive car. I don’t think he deserves it.”

He looked on some more at Dr. Raoul who was being fawned upon by the beautiful single and even married nurses in the hospital while he ate. Alfonso continued mopping the floors of the cafeteria, but deep in his mind he loathed Dr. Raoul.

After a while, Dr. Raoul finished eating his meal and said his goodbyes to all the nurses fawning at him. Alfonso sighed as he went towards the table of Dr. Raoul to mop it’s floor. He was mopping the floor under the table, when he saw a leather wallet beneath one of the chairs.

At first, Alfonso became worried of being accused of being a wallet thief, but his curiosity got the better of him. He picked up the wallet and examined it’s contents as he sat on one of the chairs of the cafeteria.

“Let’s see, this wallet contains more than 3,000 dollars in crisp bills,” he said to himself, “and the owner is no other than Dr. Raoul himself. He must have dropped it from his pant’s pocket because he was so busy flirting with the nurses.”

“With 3,000 dollars, I can buy my family a lot of things already,” he said to himself, “I don’t think Dr. Raoul would even mind if he lost 3,000 dollars. According to the rumors, he earns more than 200,000 dollars annually.”

Then he realized that if the same thing happened to him, he would want his money back. Grudgingly, he looked for Dr. Raoul and handed him the wallet. The doctor thanked him and then walked away.

Alfonso felt a little disappointed, “He has more than 3,000 dollars in his wallet. He could at least have given me a few dollars as reward money.” Disappointed, he continued mopping the floors of the hospital and forgot about the incident.

After a few days, he was doing his usual job of mopping the floors when a nurse ordered him to mop a small water spill on the floor. “Mop the floor well, Afonso,” she said, “this is near the office of Dr. Raoul.”

Irritated by what the nurse has said especially with her mention of the name ‘Dr. Raoul’, he replied: “Why, what’s so special with Dr. Raoul?” “He’s got new shoes costing more than 2,000 dollars,” the nurse smiled.

“2,000 dollars for shoes?” Alfonso sighed, “So, you think that Dr. Raoul would mind if his 2,000 dollar shoes got wet by this small spill on the floor?” “Yup,” grinned the nurse as she walked away.

“I shouldn’t have returned Dr. Raoul’s wallet to him,” fumed Alfonso, “I could have found more useful purpose for 3,000 dollars rather than just buying a shoe.” Furious, he went home early.

When he went home, he saw his wife crying. “What’s wrong?”, he said, as he instantly saw his child covered in a blanket and was twisting constantly back and forth.

“I don’t know what’ wrong with our son,” his wife said, “I want to take him to the hospital, but we don’t have any money.” “We’ll worry about the money later,” almost shouted Alfonso, “right now, our son needs to be in a hospital.” They went to the hospital, but the hospital won’t admit them because they can’t give a deposit.

“It’s the procedure in all the hospitals. Unless you can pay the deposit money, we cannot admit your son.” There was a heated argument between Alfonso and the nurses who won’t admit them.

Suddenly, Dr. Raoul approached, “What’s happening here, nurse?” “Our janitor here is insisting we admit his son even though they can’t pay the deposit money.” Dr. Raoul looked at Alfonso’s son, “This boy could die.”

He looked at the nurses, “I’ll take care of all the hospital expenses. Now, see to it that this boy is attended by doctors.” Alfonso can only look as his son was taken to a hospital room to be treated by doctors.

Alfonso never saw Dr. Raoul while his son was being treated. This never bothered him although he was bothered about the huge financial debt he owed Dr. Raoul. When is son was discharged from the hospital, he asked the cashier how much he owed them.

“Twenty-five thousand dollars, is how much it cost to treat your son,” the cashier smiled, “but you don’t have to worry about anything, Dr. Raoul has paid your bill already.”

Alfonso made up his mind. He and his family immediately went to Dr. Raoul’s office. “How can we every pay you, Dr. Raoul? You’ve paid a lot of money to the hospital just because of my son.”

“I was just returning the favor,” smiled Dr. Raoul, “you returned my wallet when you could have taken it for yourself. Good deed like yours needs to be rewarded. There’s not many people who would do what you did.”

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