Point of View

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

“No good deed goes unpunished.”
I was thinking of this famous quote first sited by Clare Booth Luce after finding a wallet at my third place the other evening.
There it sat, on a table for all to see; a brown bill fold swollen with business cards, receipts and cash. I leafed through its contents looking for something that would lead me to its rightful owner. I didn’t recognize the photo on his driver’s license as a fellow coffee-junkie nor did I know the name, but I was determined to get it back to him. I would want the same courtesy afforded me.
It’s during these private moments when the devil and angel appear on your shoulders and the ongoing battle between good and evil plays out in your mind. For me, it’s never a very long battle as I am lead by a very powerful archangel whom I like to think resembles Michael, the unshaved, cigarette-smoking, sugar-loving fictional character played by John Travolta who smells like fresh baked chocolate-chip cookies.
After thwarting Satan’s attempt in dishonesty I located a dry-cleaning receipt with the protocol-billfold owner’s phone number and placed the call of my discovery. Ironically, his name was Michael. I got the phone call from the very appreciative Michael this morning telling me he and his wallet had been reunited.
The quote, “No good deed goes unpunished,” sat on my mind throughout the day as I thought about those words. Webster’s defines punishment as a consequence of a wrong-doing, crime, fault, or bad behavior. Shouldn’t the quote read no bad deed goes unpunished? If the act of doing good deeds resulted in a punishment it would stand to reason that no one would be moved to help each other out, not that it stops the criminals from acting out their bad deeds knowing the possible out-come of their actions.
Knowing that and thinking as I do I arrived at a new quote, “no good deed goes unappreciated,” as was evident by the call from the bill-fold owner and all the previous recipients of my “golden-rule” nature spanning the course of my life. The bottom line is that “you reap what you sow.” Now there’s a quote even I can understand.