11 year-old Nick Smith entered a contest to win $50,000.00. All Nick had to do was shoot a 3 inch hockey puck through a 3 ½ in hole from 90 feet away. Nick took careful aim, hit the puck with his hockey stick and to everyone’s amazement, the puck went in the hole! It was a one in a million shot that earned this 11 year-old boy $50,000.00…or did it?

You see, Nick actually didn’t take the shot, his twin brother Nate did. Why? Because when Nick’s name was called to take the shot, he was not in the arena, so his identical twin brother stood in for him. No one would have known, except Nick and Nate’s father. Well, on Monday Nick and Nate’s father let the cat out of the bag and admitted to the officials that Nate, not Nick actually took the shot. When asked why he would reveal this secret, the father said “We thought honesty was the best policy, and we wanted to set a good example for our kids.”

May their tribe increase! Question: Would you forfeit $50,000.00 over a technicality that no one would ever notice? Or to cut to the chase, is your integrity for sale?

Steve Higginbotham