I found out one time that doing a favor for someone could get you into a lot of trouble. I was in the eighth
grade at the time, and we were having a final test. During the test, the girl sitting next to me whispered
something, but I didn't understand. So I leaned over her way and found out that she was trying to ask me if I
had an extra pen. She showed me that hers was out of ink and would not write. I happened to have an extra
one, so I took it out of my pocket and put it on her desk.
     Later, after the test papers had been turned in, the teacher asked me to stay in the room when all the other
students were dismissed (解散). As soon as we were alone she began to talk to me about what it meant to
grow up; she talked about how important it was to stand on your own two feet and be responsible for your
own acts. For a long time, she talked about honesty and emphasized the fact that when people do something
dishonest, they are really cheating themselves. She made me promise that I would think seriously about all the
things she had said, and then she told me I could leave. I walked out of the room wondering why she had
chosen to talk to me about all those things.
     Later on, I found out that she thought I had cheated in the test. When she saw me lean over to talk to the
girl next to me, it looked as if I was copying answers from the girl's test paper. I tried to explain about the pen,
but all she could say was it seemed very strange to her that I hadn't talked of anything about the pen the day
she talked to me right after the test. Even if I tried to explain that I was just doing the girl a favor by letting her
use my pen, I am sure she continued to believe that I had cheated in the test.