(Minghui.org) A few days after I started my job as a cashier, the general manager said in private to the other store employees, “After so many interviews, how did we end up with someone who practices Falun Gong?”
When my supervisor shared the comment with me, I said, “Falun Gong practitioners all strive to be good. We wouldn’t any harm anyone.” The supervisor did not say anything, but I could tell that he had some reservations about Falun Gong.
Given the Chinese Communist Party’s pervasive propaganda campaign discrediting Falun Gong over the past two decades, many Chinese have been deceived and resent us.
On the other hand, it was probably no coincidence that I got the job. I had to do well to show them what Falun Gong is really like.
I first wrote a letter to the general manager explaining how I benefited from the practice, hoping to clarify the misunderstandings he had about Falun Gong. He read it, and his attitude changed a bit.
I did not have any previous experience as a cashier, so I put in a lot of effort to learn what to do. Although I was older than the other cashiers, Dafa gives me wisdom. I grasped it in just a few days. I got along well with my coworkers. I was patient with the customers and didn’t gossip. As time passed, my coworkers all wanted to be friends with me. It was a good cultivation environment.
Speaking Up for Dafa
I was taking a break at my desk one day, when my supervisor and a few other sales representatives were chatting nearby. I usually did not pay attention to what they talked about, but that day I heard them say something negative about Master Li, the founder of Falun Dafa.
It hurt my heart to hear people repeating misunderstandings about Dafa and Master. I knew I should speak up for Dafa, so I said to my supervisor, “I’m sorry. I overheard you just now. I really hope you don’t help the communist regime spread rumors about Dafa and Master Li. We have known each other for a while. You should know Falun Gong isn’t like that. This is truly for your own benefit.”
Maybe because she sensed that I was truly thinking about her well-being she appeared to regret what she’d said. “I’m sorry,” she said to me. “I won’t talk about it then.”
A sales representative said, “You’re right, we won’t talk about that hearsay anymore.” Another clerk, who was dealing with a customer, turned to me with a look of respect on her face. Later on she expressed an interest in learning more about Falun Gong.
“Falun Gong Practitioners Are All Good!”
I always treated customers warmly and with a smile. I tried my best to resolve their issues. Even when they were frustrated and said unpleasant things to me, I never argued with them.
Once, a customer insisted that she’d left 800 yuan in cash on our counter after she was done shopping. When we told her that none of us saw the cash, she got angry, and my supervisor started to argue with her.
I said to the customer calmly, “Please don’t get frustrated yet. I have an idea. We can view the recording from our monitoring system. However, it is only accessible in our general manager’s office and he is not in today. Can you please come back tomorrow morning after 8 a.m.? We can look at the tape together. If you truly left it here and lost it, I will pay you myself. If not, then you will know what happened.”
She calmed down and agreed to come back the next day. I then called the manager and explained the situation.
The next day, the customer came back. From the the video recording, it turned out that she’d put the cash back in her purse. She was embarrassed and said to my manager, “Your employee is so nice and responsible. Nowadays it is not easy to find somebody like her.”
When I saw her off downstairs, she kept thanking me. I took the opportunity to clarify the truth about Dafa to her. It turned out she worked on the street committee and was a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) member. She told me that one of her neighbors is also a very kind Dafa practitioner, so she had already withdrawn from the CCP. She said, “It seems that all Falun Gong practitioners are good!”
My Coworkers Change
Vendors sell fruit and food in front of our store. Because they give out free samples, some of the store employees would pick up fruit from the stands without paying.
A coworker once picked up a few plums without paying and offered to share them with me. I reminded her, “It is not easy for those vendors to make money. Let’s not take things from them without paying going forward.” She wasn’t angry with me, but agreed it wasn’t the right thing to do. After that, our relationship actually became closer. Many others who worked at the store also stopped taking fruit from the vendors.
“People Should Reject the CCP”
Each year, calendars with information and pictures about Dafa are very popular. All of my coworkers wanted one. I also put one on my counter every year. The first year, our general manager (who rarely came to our store) saw the calendar on my counter and asked, “Who brought this here?” I said, “It’s mine.” He said, “Ah.” Then he smiled, “Falun Gong is pretty good, just a bit against the CCP.” Before I could respond, he said, “The CCP is very bad. People should avoid it anyway.” Then he smiled and left.
Coworkers Protect Me from the 610 Office
Once, a staff member from our township 610 Office, an extralegal agency created to persecute Falun Gong, called and asked to talk to me in person. They said only two of them would come to talk to me about something quickly and then they would leave. I agreed to meet with them in 10 minutes at work. After I hung up the phone, I suddenly realized that I should not have trusted them because they had deceived me in the past. They’d put me in a brainwashing center and a forced labor camp. So I decided to go to the department store across the street and watch them first.
Ten minutes later, a police car showed up. Four to five people got out and rushed into our store. I saw that they were lying again and called them. “I decided not to meet with you anymore because you are lying again.”
They then went to another store in the chain to look for me. The store manager there happened to be a coworker I knew well. She did not tell them anything. She also called our other stores and gave them a heads-up not to tell the 610 Office agents anything about me. I was very grateful to my coworkers for protecting me.
My Coworkers Trust Me
My kindness and honesty earned the trust of my general manager and my coworkers. However, for different reasons, including the fact that I was responsible for the care of my elderly mother, I had to quit.
My coworkers all tried their best to keep me on. One of them went to the general manager’s wife and asked them to keep me. She told her some stories about me. One was about the newspaper delivery lady who fell off her motorcycle and I went up to help her with no hesitation. Another time, a vendor selling lunch boxes forgot to bring a servicing spoon. He asked to borrow one from us. Our store manager did not want to lend him one, but I persuaded her to help him out. She said I did not know any of those people, but I was always ready to help whoever needed help.
I am very thankful for the trust my coworkers put in me. I am even more grateful to have come across Dafa and learned to be a good person with Dafa’s guidance.
