The Honesty Shop

An early life practice can shape the mindset of future leaders

To them, honesty is not just the best policy, it’s the only policy.

Students at Cardiff International School, Dhaka, do not cheat, even when there is ample opportunity.

At the school’s ‘Honesty Shop’, students are the only customers. They come to the shop to buy pencils, pens, paper and other school goods, but there is no shopkeeper. They simply drop their money in the cashbox and help themselves to what they need. There’s no supervision and no guard.

“This is for the first time in my life I have the opportunity to prove my honesty. So why won’t I take this opportunity and practice this all my life?”said Ziba Tasnia, a class VI student of the school.

The cashbox shows that the little customers even deposit a bit more than the required amount when they have no change, say the authorities. They’d rather pay extra than pay less when buying something from the Honesty Shop.

There is clear opportunity to cheat the authorities very easily, but the children do not do so. What encourages them to avoid being a little dishonest now and then, especially since they will not be caught out or reprimanded?

The answer from a group of students is: It is a matter of trust. As teachers trust them, they try to honour this faith and remain untainted.

‘Honesty is the only policy’, is a buzzword among students there and is the slogan of the school’s ‘Honesty Shop’ project.

The school has two campuses and two shops which have been running for the past few months.

The shop is neither manned by a shopkeeper nor under CCTV (closed circuit television) surveillance. Students are free to buy any school stationery available at the shop, simply dropping their money in the red cashbox.

“It’s not just a shop. It’s an institution that helps students learn human virtues for their greater life,” said AMM Khairul Bashar, the Honesty Shop's founder and principal of the school.

Teachers are happy with their children's performance. They said the shop has been set up to give the students an opportunity to develop their ethical values through every day practice.

“We learn a lot about honesty from our textbooks, but have little scope to practice this in real life. This has given the students an opportunity to show their honesty, truthfulness and integrity, checking temptations of practical life,” the principal added.

The items that are put on display at the shop have price tags and are arranged alphabetically. Students buy what they need every day, following simple instructions on the notice board.

Some students at the school’s Dhanmandi branch shared their experience and their feelings about the concept of ‘honest buying’.

“Yes, it’s a great idea and a very easy way to buy things without any bargaining,” Hasan Elahi, a student of class IX, said. He spent Tk 35 at the shop on that particular day.

Atoshi Hoimontika, a sixth grader, believes honesty can help people in many ways. “Practising honesty is a technique to become a good human being too,” she said.

Ehsanul Amin, director of the project, said it has brought changes to the behavioural patterns of students, although they acknowledged it is too early to draw conclusions.

Director of the project, Ehsanul, said initially they thought it might prove to be a losing iniative in financial terms, but now they see it makes a good profit like any other business venture. “Rather surprisingly, every month we get some extra money in the cashbox as we guess, students drop a higher amount when they don’t have change.”

Asked about the extra money sometimes dropped by students into the cashbox when they have no change, the director said it was a problem at the beginning of the project. "Now," he says, "we have  a solution. We decided to allow the students to take another product from the shop against the extra money.”

Accounting teacher Farhana Akter related an experience. “One afternoon I lost my wallet with several thousand taka in it. By the end of the school day, I lost any hope of recovering it. But the next morning a student came to me and said: ‘Ma’am, this may be yours’.”

“That is really encouraging,” she said, expressing her conviction that this practice will have a far-reaching and sustainable impact on the lives of the students of the school.