Tell a story which ends with the words: .....and I have had to live with this stigma for the rest of my life.

Answer Details

A Moment of Weakness

I was seventeen and in my final year at secondary school when the event that would shadow the rest of my life took place. Until then, my name had been a byword for honesty. Teachers trusted me with the keys of the examination store; my classmates called me "the reliable one." I little knew how quickly a good name, built over many years, could be lost in a single afternoon.

It was during the mock examinations. Our set was preparing for the school certificate, and the pressure to come first was crushing. My father had promised me a new bicycle if I topped the class, and I wanted that prize more than I could say. The night before the Mathematics paper, I had fallen ill and had been unable to study the last three topics. Fear gripped me. In a moment of weakness, I copied the formulae I needed onto a small piece of paper and hid it inside my sock.

The examination began quietly. For a while I resisted the temptation, but when I reached the questions I had not read, my resolve crumbled. I slipped the paper out and began to copy. I did not notice the invigilator, Mr. Bassey, standing behind me until his shadow fell across my desk. The whole hall turned to look. My paper was seized, my name was written down, and I was marched out before hundreds of my mates.

The school did not expel me, for it was only a mock examination, but the story spread like wildfire. From that day, the teachers no longer trusted me with the store keys. My classmates whispered whenever I passed. The title "the reliable one" was replaced by another, uglier one. Even after I left school, old schoolmates would introduce me to others with a knowing smile: "He is the one who was caught cheating."

I passed my real examinations honestly and went on to a good career, but the memory of that afternoon never left me. I have learnt, at a heavy price, that a single dishonest act can undo a lifetime of good conduct, and I have had to live with this stigma for the rest of my life.