One evening, on reckoning up his accounts, he found that in making change he had taken six cents too much from a customer. On closing the store he immediately walked three miles to the farmhouse where the customer lived and returned the six cents. Then he walked the three miles back.
On opening the store one morning, he discovered a four-ounce weight on the scales. He remembered that his last customer the evening before had purchased half a pound of tea. He saw at once that he had given her short weight. He measured out the four ounces still due, locked the store, took a long walk to the customer’s house, and explained the shortage.
These were little things, but Honest Abe could not rest until he had made them right.
This above all: to thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
—Shakespeare.