The story
A young bank clerk lived beyond his means, associated with vicious companions, and finally attempted to pay his debts by borrowing the funds entrusted to his care. His fate was the usual one, and ten years later when he emerged from prison, a physical wreck, he realized that his follies were not worth the price he paid. He was practically penniless and old friends shunned him. After many struggles he secured a subordinate position in the bank where he formerly had been employed, and for a time worked diligently, unheeding the snubs and sneers of the other clerks, who were either honest or had not been found out. Among the employees was a young teller, the only person in the bank who was decently civil to the ex-convict. The teller, sad to relate, was in rough waters himself. He dearly loved his wife, and longed for the day when she would have silks, diamonds and a retinue of servants. Hoping to realize this dream, he thought of speculation, and like the other man ‘borrowed’ the money over which he was guardian.
The very day his crime found him out, for the bank examiner paid an unexpected visit. The teller was called in, questioned, and was on the verge of making a confession when the ex-convict entered the room and said that he was the guilty man. The only man who could not understand was the teller, for he had the money in his own pocket at the time. A second later the ex-convict slipped a note into the teller’s hand. In it he explained that a prison term would make the teller a ‘friendless wreck like myself.’ The ex-convict knew that his days were numbered, and was willing to sacrifice himself to save another from becoming an outcast. The teller accepted the sacrifice, for he had a wife dependent upon him. The other man was lonely and friendless, but the good deed he did looked after him, for the teller never forgot that the liberty he enjoyed was won by his pledge to be an honest, upright man for the rest of his days.
Summary from The Moving Picture World · 26 April 1913
