Unfiltered Story #246470

My mother has countless stories of people trying to take advantage of her generosity because for most of her life she had a welcoming demeanor that made her come across as naive. This story was kind of the last straw for her.

My family was in the process of moving out of town, and my mother needed desperate help in selling most of our belongings in the span of 1-2 weeks. She decided to hire our regular cleaning lady as an extra set of hands, not just helping moving our things to the patio but also to watch over our stuff throughout the day as neighbors would pass by and buy our furniture. While she would usually come over once a week to deep-clean, my mother hired her for 7 days in a row, so she would earn in just one week the wages she would normally earn in a couple months. My mother also offered her the guest room for her to stay overnight at any point in the week. She accepted and stayed overnight every day to save on transportation.

By the fifth day of her stay, she had become friendlier with my mother as they would spend most of the day working together and having lenghtier conversations. While I appreciated the help, I couldn’t help but notice she acted differently around me. I just chalked it up to me not being as open as a book like my mother.

The next morning, I didn’t go out as originally planned but decided to sleep in. While in bed, I heard my mother’s very recognizable footsteps going upstairs. Shortly after, I heard footsteps walk towards my side of the hallway, the kitchen’s door swinging, a bag being unzipped, and then the sound of coins being handled. I knew it could not be my mother based on timing. The only other possible person would be the cleaning lady, who I assumed entered the kitchen to wash her breakfast dishes.

Since I am a very non-confrontational person, I waited until I was able to talk to my mother in private. I let her know what I had heard, and to count her cash just in case, since this is where she kept her “emergency cash” for our family. Disappointed and a little shocked, she confirmed that only half the money we always kept in the drawer was there.

After my mother confronted the cleaning lady, she admitted to having taken “only enough to cover for her transportation fees,” which was questionable since she would only be paying a day’s worth of fees by the end of the week. My mother had a very long conversation with her, I guess trying to determine why she would steal from us when we were paying her fairly for her time. The cleaning lady then confessed that she had acted on impulse upon noticing the cash, and that she regretted it.

I thought my mom would dismiss her right then, but she allowed her to stay until the next day. I was upset by this, and feeling betrayed, so I avoided the cleaning lady entirely.

I guess we were really desperate to get rid of our stuff, because my mom gave her one of our furniture pieces for her to take home on her last day.

When I asked her why was she being so lenient and generous with someone that betrayed our trust, my mother said that she felt pity for this lady. She decided on forgiving her and ending her work week in good terms, since it was the last time we would likely see her.

A week later, however, when the lady called requesting my family to be one of her work references, my mother had the sensibility to decline. Unfortunately, my mother became quite paranoid of people ever since this incident.