I taught 8-year olds for a while. One morning a very sweet, sensitive-type, little boy proudly presented me with a small gift box that he had obviously taken great care to wrap and decorate. He insisted that I open it right away. I was shocked to open the box and find a very large pair of diamond earrings that appeared to be set in platinum. I’m an April birthday, and my birthstone is a diamond. I also have a very spoiling husband who has gifted me with lots of nice jewelry over the years. I could tell that these were definitely the real deal. I knew there was no way that he had purchased these for me with his allowance, yet he really wasn’t the type of kid who would maliciously steal from his mother. I didn’t want to embarrass him.
I thanked him and placed them in my desk drawer that had a lock. On my lunch break, I called his mom and explained the situation. She was a realtor and worked near the school. She dropped by and confirmed that those were her diamond earrings, and I, of course, returned them to her. She told me she would handle it gently at home.
The next day, the same little boy came in with another gift for me. He insisted that I open it right away. It was a little angel figurine (from the Dollar Store). He told me that his mom let him know that I was married and couldn’t accept jewelry from him and that he shouldn’t have taken his mom’s jewelry. She took him to the Dollar Store and let him pick out one item that he thought I’d like. He picked the angel “to protect me from the bad kids.” (I had a few kids that year that really acted out in class!) I kept that angel on my desk for the rest of my career!
Thanks to everyone for the upvotes and the sweet comments! This story happened back in the early ’90s! This “little boy” is now an adult with two sons of his own! I actually ran into him a few years ago, at a restaurant in the town that I used to teach in. He’s still sweet and shy. He told me that his mom still tells this story, too! :)
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