I was about 9. My Grandpa and I liked to play checkers. He would let me go first all the time. He would win most of the time. But once in a while I’d win. When I won, Grandpa would tell me how proud he was of the game I played. I remember how tired I got of losing all the time. I was getting better, but it was frustrating that no matter how well I played I kept losing. I wanted Grandpa to be proud of me. One day, Grandpa got up to get a glass of water and I took a couple of checkers off the board thinking Grandpa wouldn’t notice. And he didn’t…or so I thought. We finished the game and guess what….I won! Grandpa said that he couldn’t congratulate me this time because I cheated. I said, “I didn’t cheat.” He said, “I noticed that I was missing a few checkers when I came back from getting my water. But I thought, no it couldn’t be that my granddaughter had taken two of my checkers and put them in her pile. But it seems like that is the case.” Grandpa said that “winning a game by cheating is worse than losing a game honorably.” I felt terrible that I cheated. I still remember that lesson. I stopped cheating and tried to pay more attention to the game, so I could become a better player.
Source: Unnamed