Tips

Then "tips" are a bad thing.

Wherever you go, people want to be "tipped" for doing the slightest thing which they ought to do out of common good feeling. A Scout will never accept a "tip", unless it is to pay for work done. It is often difficult to refuse, when it is offered, but for a Scout it is easy. He has only to say, "Thank you very much, but I am a Scout, and our rules don't allow us to accept anything for doing a good turn."

"Tips" put you on a wrong footing with everyone.

You cannot work in a friendly way with a man if you are thinking how much "tip" you are going to get out of him, or he is thinking how much he'll have to "tip" you. And all Scout's work for another ought to be done in a friendly way.

I have had a number of letters of admiration for the Scouts on account of their doing good acts and then declining to be tipped for them. 1 am very glad to hear it, Scouts.

Remember, that it was because a Scout refused a tip for helping an American in London that Scouting went to the United States. At Gilwell Park, our Training and Camping Ground in Epping Forest, there is a statuette of a bison given to us by the Boy Scouts of America to commemorate that Good Turn.

Of course, proper pay that is earned by your work is another thing, and you will be right to accept it.

Author

Lord Baden-Powell of Gilwell (Chief Scout, London, UK)

Date of Creation

1908

Learn A Continuation:

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Back in The Past:

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