The Large Sum of Money

Once upon a time, Ruthie’s mom was paranoid that all the banks would shut down, and she advised Ruthie to keep a large sum of cash hidden away in case terrible things happened.

So Ruthie put a large sum of cash in an ugly fuzzy sock. She kept this sock tucked away in her sock drawer.

“You are going to lose that,” said Autumn. “You should just put that in the bank”.

But Ruthie kept it in the ugly fuzzy sock that she never wore.

One month later, all the girls moved out of their apartment.

Boy, had they accumulated a lot of unnecessary junk over 3 years.

They filled 5 bags full of old puzzles, Halloween costumes, and socks to bring to the Salvation Army. Everyone got rid of a lot of stuff; they were all in a bind to get their things out of there by the deadline.

Ruthie put all her earthly belongings (minus her recent Salvation Army donations) into her parents’ truck and her cute little car, saying “bye bye” to sweet Clemson. She spent the next week unpacking all her things at her parents’ house. But as the week went by, Ruthie began to realize something horrible…She didn’t know where her ugly sock was.

She looked through every trash bag, every suit case, every box, but her large sum of money was missing.

“Oh my gosh… I think I must’ve donated it to the Salvation Army on accident!” Ruthie thought to herself. “I mean, I was in such a rush to move out, and that sock is awful ugly! I must have gotten rid of it.”

Ruthie felt horrible. She felt like the most terribly irresponsible person in the world. Young adult? Yeah right! Ruthie told no one about her predicament. With waiting tables all Summer, she would make up for her loss. No one had to know about her awful mistake.

But Ruthie has to share things with her girls! So one night, a few months later, Ruthie confessed to Katelyn and Chaela about her loss of the large sum of money. It felt good to get off her chest and to be able to laugh about it. Yes, Ruthie was terribly irresponsible, but life is more than money. Sometimes Ruthie freaks out about money too much, and this was God’s funny way of showing her that He is in control of such things.

Ruthie didn’t tell Autumn about her loss, because she was scared of what Autumn would think and knew Autumn would make fun of her (sorry Autumn, but you would have. You told Ruthie multiple times she wold lose it. And you know what? You were right!).

A few weeks later, Autumn came over to Ruthie’s house to help clean and organize Ruthie’s room. They wanted to hang a picture on the wall, so Autumn brought down Ruthie’s tool box to get the hammer and nails.

“Ewww, Ruth. You are so gross! You have an old sock in your toolbox. This better not be dirty!” exclaimed Autumn.

“Oh. My gosh, Autumn. That sock has a whole lot of money in it..” said a relieved, grateful, and shocked Ruthie.

And then Ruthie admitted the whole story to Autumn. And then she told her dad. Who told her mom, who was hopefully not too ashamed. And then Ruthie told you, because she’s crazy.

But don’t go searching through her sock drawer, because Ruthie brought that money to the bank (and gave some of it to charity. Because obviously, with a story like this, some of that money needed to go to charity!).

Moral of the story: It might be good to keep some money outside of the bank, but if you know you are prone to losing things, think twice about it!