One afternoon a carpet layer had just finished installing carpet for a lady. He stepped out for a smoke, only to realize he had lost his cigarettes. After looking around he noticed that in the middle of the room, under the carpet that he had just installed, was a bump. Ah, he thought, my cigarettes. "No sense pulling up the entire floor for one pack of smokes," he said to himself. So he got out his mallet and flattened the bump. Not long after, as he was cleaning up, the lady came in. "Here," she said, handing him his pack of cigarettes. "I found them in the hallway. Then she said, "Now. if I could just find Peep." "What is a peep," the man asked. "Not a what," she said. "A who. Peep's my pet parakeet."

It was an honest mistake and the carpet layer didn't know he was doing any harm by getting rid of the bump in the carpet. Sometimes however we aren't aware that our little mishaps may actually cause harm to someone else. Better to be honest, rather than try to hide our mistakes.