Greedy Gut Tries to Steal from the Salvation Army

So....have I mentioned how greedy my child can be?

He loves money. He loves to put it in his piggy bank, but then he wants more.
He loves to hold coins in his little hands. He already prefers quarters to pennies. He loves to hear the jingling when he has money in his pockets. Sometimes, we even have to change his pants so that he'll be wearing a pair of pants with pockets...you know, pockets to hold money.

In the spirit of Christmas, I decided that Gage could put some coins in the bucket of the bell ringer outside the store. As we approached the storefront, I gave Gage some money. I began telling him how when we reached the bell ringer, he should put the money into the bucket, and say "Merry Christmas." He had the "Merry Christmas" part down. He dutifully put his coins into the bucket.

And then....
ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE.

He wanted his money back.
He's not very tall, so he had to tip the bucket sideways to try to get the money out. The bucket fell. The bucket lid popped off. Money spilled out. And, my greedy gut son grabbed fistfuls of money while screaming "I wwwaaaaannnnttt it; I want da money." Picture my child on the ground, me kneeling with him, and the bell ringer, all of us going after the spilled money. Gage was trying to scoop up as much as he could, even though his hands were full of bills & coins. I was saying (rather loudly), "GAGE, IT'S FOR CHARITY! PUT THE MONEY BACK. IT'S NOT OURS. ONCE WE PUT IT IN THE BUCKET, IT'S GONE-GONE. THE BUCKET IS LIKE A PIGGY BANK." My explanation was not working....so, finally, I resorted to, "I'll give you some more money!" We got the bucket money back in the bucket. I started digging in the bottom of my purse & rounded up nine cents for him. He toted that 9 cents all around the store. He talked about putting it in the bucket....and when we left the store, he wanted to put the nine cents in the bucket. Of course, I thought "great, here we go again!" The bell ringer encouraged us to give it another try (he was very grandfatherly). So we did....Gage made his nine cent donation at the end of the evening without incident.

Hats off to you Mister Bell Ringer.
And....for the rest of the Salvation Army....sorry my "Greedy Gut" tried to jack your bucket!