Bad penny? Not this honest little girl ...

THE STORY of the old lady who blagged a box of chocolates by claiming she thought they were on special offer (Peterborough) reminded me of a neighbour in the early Forties. Our houses used gas for cooking and heating water, and we paid with a gas meter that took only pennies and shillings. We kept a jar of shillings near the meter that were not to be used for anything else. Occasionally, our neighbours would come and ask if we could change some coppers for a shilling. One day a young girl knocked on the door and said her mum wanted a shilling for the meter. She had some copper coins in a small bag. It was a mixture of halfpennies and farthings and when I checked, there were only 11 pennies’ worth. The little girl said her mother was in a hurry to get some gas to finish her cooking, and I felt a bit mean asking her to go all the way down the road and back to get a penny, so I gave her the shilling and said her mother could pay when she next went shopping. When my mother came back, she said that the woman down the road was always trying this trick and moving further down the road when her near neighbours realised they never got the missing penny. A few weeks later, the girl was back asking for a shilling, and I asked why she didn’t ask her near neighbours. She pulled a sad face and said they wouldn’t help as her mother never paid back the missing penny. As she was honest I gave her a shilling and said her mother needn’t give us the missing penny, and to give it to her for having to come all the way up the road. Her mother might forget to pay us, but her daughter would not forget about it as a penny was more than many children got as pocket money in those days.

derek trayler, hornchurch, essex.