It began with small lies, which at the time, we let it slide. There were 2 reasons for this: one, we gave her (our domestic helper) the benefit of doubt and two, the implications were trivial.
Yesterday, when I arrived home from work, my pregnant wife made me aware of her suspicion that our helper has been drinking. She observed that our helper was losing her motor coordination, had slurred speech and behaving very strangely "high" after coming back from grocery shopping. The alcohol smell from her breath and her body was becoming more obvious to us, yet when questioned, she repeatedly denied drinking. Connecting the dots backwards, we realized that this may not be the first time which then spurred us to dig deeper. The stakes were higher now as we have our first baby due very soon. A phone call to the local supermarket revealed and confirmed that our helper bought a small bottle of white wine worth around 11 Singapore dollars- the evidence we needed. At this point, her story changed from "didn't drink anything" to "Yes, I drink something,...I thought it was fruit juice". One lie after another.
It is human nature to feel betrayed and hurt in this situation, as we did- at first. From a stoic point of view, Marcus Aurelius reminds us "reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears". We had to accept the fact that, there's no way to see from her lens of life, hence how could we understand the defiant lies or her lack of signs of conscience?
When the lies continued, despite giving her multiple chances, we finally had to let her go as the implications of these lies were higher now. It's easy to get stressed about little things and to be too focused on our own issues but when things don't go as expected, welcome the opportunity to practice virtues of excellence in all situations.
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