Go and Cash It!

Roy McClain tells of a beggar who stopped a lawyer on the street in a large southern city and asked him for a quarter. Taking a long, hard look into the man’s unshaven face, the attorney asked. “Don’t I know you from somewhere?” “You should,” came the reply. “I’m your former classmate. Remember, second floor, old Main Hall?”

“Why, Sam, of course I know you!” Without further question the lawyer wrote a check for $100. “Here, take this and get a new start. I don’t care what’s happened in the past, it’s the future that counts.” And with that he hurried on.

Tears welled up in the man’s eyes as he walked to a bank nearby. Stopping at the door, he saw through the glass the well-dressed tellers and the spotlessly clean interior. Then he looked at his filthy rags. “They won’t take this from me. They’ll swear that I forged it,” he muttered as he turned away.

The next day the two men met again. “Why Sam, what did you do with my check? Gamble it away? Drink it up?” “No,” said the beggar as he pulled it out of his dirty shirt pocket and told why he hadn’t cashed it. “Listen, friend,” said the lawyer. “What makes that check good is not your clothes or appearance, but my signature. Go on, cash it!”