The bell for home time rang. Students quickly packed their bags and rushed out of their classrooms. Some ran towards the school gate, while others hurried to the canteen before all the snacks and drinks were gone.

Amid the commotion was a girl named Sara. She packed her bag, picked up her water bottle and walked anxiously towards the canteen. Taking a deep breath and trying to look confident, she approached the canteen owner, who was busy behind the counter. Sara swallowed nervously before speaking.

During the summer, the juice and cold-water bottles at the school canteen usually sold out long before the final bell. To make sure they had something to drink after school, many students paid the owner in advance to reserve a bottle for home time.

The owner kept a register of all advance payments. Sara went closer and asked for the juice. The owner checked the register, but couldn’t find Sara’s name or any record of her payment.

“Your name isn’t written in the register.”

“Please check again,” Sara insisted. “I gave you the money to reserve a juice.” Trying to sound convincing, Sara continued arguing.

The owner was equally determined and refused to give in. Within minutes, the disagreement turned into a heated argument. Instead of admitting her mistake, Sara kept arguing because she wanted a free juice. Her greed blinded her.

Everyone was staring at them. The teachers present there made them stop, but the argument had already gone too far. The principal was passing by and stopped to check what was happening.

“Stop, you both,” she called out sternly.

Both of them fell silent. The owner reported the matter to the principal, while Sara became frightened. She had been caught completely off guard.

Just as the principal was about to speak, Sara tried to end the matter calmly. “Ma’am, it’s okay. I don’t want the juice anymore. My father is waiting outside.”

But the principal wasn’t convinced. “No,” she said. “If you’re telling the truth, we’ll check the CCTV cameras.”

Sara’s heart skipped a beat. She had never noticed the cameras before.

Her eyes quickly searched the area until they landed on one inside the canteen. She froze. In that instant, she realised there was no way to hide the truth.

Sara stood there, shivering and covered in a cold sweat, as the principal walked towards the security room to check the CCTV footage. The owner followed her, certain that the cameras would reveal the truth.

Sara could hardly breathe. Her heart pounded, and she felt as though the ground beneath her had disappeared.

Then she heard someone call her name. “Sara!”

She jerked awake. Instead of standing outside the security room, she found herself sitting at her classroom desk. A duster had fallen from the teacher’s table, and the sound had pulled her out of the frightening dream.

For a moment, she looked around in confusion before realising she was still in the middle of the lesson.

She remembered everything. Just a few minutes earlier, her friend had suggested a trick to get a free juice from the canteen after school and Sara had planned to try it.

The dream had shown her exactly where that choice could lead. From that day on, Sara decided never to let greed overcome her honesty. No free juice was worth losing her self-respect.

Published in Dawn, Young World, August 29th, 2026