Punished for taking out of my piggyback

I want to tell a story from my childhood. My parents bought me a plastic piggy bank when I was very young to teach me the importance of saving. This piggy bank did not have an opening, only the coin slot. When I received some money for my birthday, not much mind you, perhaps $2 or $5, my parents forced me to put it in the piggy bank. From time to time I also put in coins of my own that I collected.

As I grew a bit older, 10-11 years old, I started to want to purchase things for myself. Having no allowance nor ever given spending money from my parents, I resorted to taking out of the piggy bank which they kept in their bedroom closet. I discovered with enough shaking and a butter knife I could fish the bills out from the coin slot. I left all the coins inside so the piggy was actually still quite heavy and no one could tell what was inside.

Now being notorious cheapasses my parents had probably only given me about $50-100 in the course of 5 years to actually put into this pig. In their minds however there were tens of thousands of dollars saved in there.

So at 12 years old they announced it was time to break open the piggy bank and take that huge fortune to the real bank and open my first savings account. No doubt it would be enough to pay for my college tuition or something. Mind you all I ever managed to buy with this money was candy, snacks, maybe the occasionally a few games at the arcade.

As I was sweating and trembling as they broke it open and dumped the contents into a big pot. And then… shocked silence. And then the screaming. WHERE IS ALL THE MONEY? HOW COULD YOU STEAL IT FOR YOURSELF? TERRIBLE SON, AWFUL BOY!!

Followed by a whipping from my father for the “thousands” of dollars I “stole” while my mother sobbed at me being the worst disappointment ever.

That’s it. That’s the story.