A woman was waiting at an airport one night, with several long hours before her flight. She hunted for a book in the airport shops, bought a bag of cookies and found a place to sit.

She was engrossed in her book but happened to see that the man sitting one seat away grabbed a cookie from the bag laying on the seat between them. She thought it was rude of him to take her cookie without asking but decided to be nice and didn’t complain. With each cookie she took, he took one too. When only one was left, he smiled and offered her the last one.

He never said thank you for the cookies he stole which bothered the woman. She was relieved when her flight was called and she gathered her belongings before heading to the gate. She thought he was rude and an ingrate but let it go.

She boarded the plane, sank in her seat and then she sought her book. As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise…there was her bag of cookies!

If these are mine, the others were his and he tried to share. Too late to apologize, she realized with grief that she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief.

---- Valerie Cox