While we are all concerned about the muggings and other acts of petty crime in Spain, it is good to reflect on the basic honesty of the Spanish people. We had two examples of this during our brief two week visit. First, a group of our students were having lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe in Madrid. One of the girls, a 12 year old (traveling with her parents, but eating with older friends) was working out the separate check business with the waitress. The other two girls at her table had paid with $20 traveler's checks, but this girl paid with a $50 check. All the girls received change back as though they had all paid with $20's. When the girl got back to the hotel and went over the day's happenings with her parents, she became aware of the fact that she was out $30. The girl was in tears as this was her first experience dealing with her own finances and let's face it, $30 is $30! The parents asked if anything could be done about it, and most people said we should just kiss the money goodbye. I talked to our tour guide and asked if she could make a call for me (I figured her etiquette in dealing with this issue would be better than mine!) and the manager said yes, he was aware of a $30 discrepancy and yes, he would be happy to refund the money! We set off at once to the Hard Rock and the manager explained that he knew from the handwriting on the check and from the waitress's recollections that a youngster unfamiliar with foreign money was involved. He said this kind of mistake could happen to anyone and that we should tell the girl not to feel bad about having made the mistake. Then he handed the $30 over to the girl's happy parents!

A few days later, one of our girls dropped a 2000pta bill as she left the Museo de Arqueología. An old woman standing on the steps found the money and shouted at the girl to stop so she could give her the money!

Our tour group witnessed some petty crime, but these two acts of honesty, consideration, and (I think) protection of young people left people with a wonderful feeling towards the millions of NON crimimals that live in Spain!