Honesty Is The Best Policy

Chief Ade was a very wealthy man; he had a daughter named Morenike whom he loved so much. His wife Titi had passed away when Morenike was barely a year old; Chief had to play the role of being a father and mother to his five children. He had loved his wife of fifteen years so much and no other woman seemed able to fill the vacuum she left in his life.

Chief never had any formal education due to his poor background; he had struggled and suffered all the way to the top. Hence he vowed to ensure that his children get all the formal education they would require to excel in life. Chief sent all his five children to the best schools in the country.

Morenike grew up to be a very beautiful but deceitful young lady, while growing up she was heavily pampered by her older siblings. She knew that she was her father’s favorite and always took advantage of the whole situation.
All through her schooling, she was never contended with her allowance, she always had to fabricate lies in order to get extra money from her father.

Chief Ade knew of Morenike’s dishonesty especially when money was involved but he wondered why she acted so not withstanding the fact that he had never defaulted in his financial responsibility towards her and had always given her all she ever asked for.
Each time Chief confronted Morenike on her behavior, she profusely denied such behavior on her part.

Architect Jide was Morenike’s fiancé. Chief regarded him as his son; he even awarded Jide a contract to build a modern duplex with the best facilities in place and paid him more than the amount required for the job.
Morenike wondered why Jide should spend so much to build the duplex. She told him that her father was old school and would not know the difference between a modern duplex built with superior material and that built with inferior materials.
Jide explained to her that he had no grounds to be dishonest with her father. Chief had offered him the contract because he trusted in Jide’s ability to deliver.

But Morenike was always used to having things done the way she wanted it, she kept on bugging Jide on the need to heed to her advice.
Jide had no house of his own; he was living in a three bedroom flat. His fiancée never ceased to complain of the size of his apartment and of how he needed to save to get a place of his own.
Jide knew that he needed to be honest with Chief but he couldn’t stand the fear of having to lose Morenike’s love. He knew that if he disobeyed her wish, she was capable of putting an end to their relationship.

Morenike finally succeeded in convincing Jide to use inferior building materials for the structure.
They both spent the remaining money meant for the building of Chief’s house. To them it was as if the money grew wings and flew away, for they couldn’t account for how it was used. They reasoned that this might be the punishment for their dishonesty towards Chief Ade.
Their wedding was around the corner, it was the same Chief that was their sponsor. Chief had ensured that Morenike and Jide had all they needed to make their wedding ceremony the talk of the town.

After their wedding, Chief Ade gave them a gift that made them shed tears of regrets; he presented to them the keys to the house Jide had built for him.
They suddenly realized that their one act of dishonesty had ruined their chances of having a modern duplex with the best facilities as their house.
Jide couldn’t hide his regrets, he had always known honesty to be the best policy but he had been blinded by his love for Morenike and had chosen the path of dishonesty.
Morenike finally realized that honesty remains the best policy; now she and husband would have to live with the consequence of their dishonesty. Too bad, she had to learn this lesson in a hard way.