my lost dollar summary
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"My Lost Dollar " is a story narrated in first person by the author Stephen Leacock. The one line summary is that he tries in many ways to get back that one dollar he lent his friend Todd for paying his taxi to go to Bermuda. It is made to be funny by using exaggeration on the amount one dollar and on friendship. There is humour made out in the efforts of the author, all efforts going in vain. The author picked a tale of two friends who are found in common place.
The author lends one dollar to Todd in the name of friendship and in kind. After Todd goes to Bermuda, he had not forgotten about it. He expected Todd to return it as soon as he could. But Todd avoids it as if he had forgotten it. After some days, Stephen gets a letter from Todd. He mentioned the temperature in Bermuda but not about the dollar.
When Todd returns to the town after three weeks and then Stephen meets Tedd at the railway station. The author does not explicitly ask for the dollar. Instead he puts in a word that they hire one taxi to go to Montreal. Stephen said that to remind Todd about one dollar he paid for taxi ride to Bermuda. Todd does not agree and then suggests that they walk. So he did not get the hint of the author.
The entire evening they spent talking about Bermuda. All that while Stephen expected Todd to remember the one dollar that he owed him. But he did not explicitly mention that. Perhaps it was the embarrassement in asking directly. It could be that in friendship one should not explicitly ask money lent to friends and that too small amount like a dollar. Perhaps it is a shame to ask directly.
Then he inquires about the currency in Bermuda and its value as compared to the American Dollar. He expected that Todd would remember that one dollar. Todd seemed to have forgotten about that dollar completely. At dinner later, Todd says causually that Poland does not per her debts.
Finally Stephen gives up the dollar from Tedd. He adds the name of Tedd to the list of people owing him one dollar and have forgotten about it. Also, he gets a thought that just as Todd has forgotten to return one dollar, perhaps he himself also forgotten to return money he borrowed from others. He does not remember any names. He wishes to start a Honesty Movement for paying those the odd dollars (small amounts) that he borrowed earlier. Honesty is important. The author leaves a final comment in humour that he did not want Todd to see the copy of the book with this story and read this story.
The moral of the story is that small or big, one should return the money owed to others. That amount may be important for the lender. Further, it gives a great pain to the lender, if the borrower totally forgets about money borrowed. An honest man remembers the help done by friends.
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