By JOHN THOMPSON
Coweta Editor

The day started out just like any other for Senoia businessman Ellis Crook. Owner of five businesses, he had the normal worries about who would show up for work and whether he would be able to make sure all his customers left his establishments happy and satisfied.

By the end of the day, though, Crook received a lesson in human nature that reaffirmed his belief in the inherent goodness of people.

While going through the morning mail, Crook opened a letter addressed to him with no return address. Inside, Crook was stunned to find $400 in cash and a short note.

The letter writer told Crook that he had once worked for Ellis and his father back in the 1950s in their grocery store.

"As I worked in your store, like a lot of people that worked there, we would drink drinks, make sandwiches and eat things without paying for them. When we did things like this, it was same as taking a dollar out of the cash register," the anonymous writer said.

The writer added that he had no idea how much he actually took out of the store, but "...I have been convicted in my heart that this was wrong."

The writer enclosed the money to cover his past indiscretions and hoped that Crook would "receive this money with the same love I am sending it to you with."

After reading the letter, Crook was stunned and happy.

"It just goes to prove that 95 percent of the people out there are good," he said.

The jolly grocer has no idea who sent the offering and really doesn't want to know.

"It's good to know that lessons we try and teach the kids extend nearly 40 years," he added.

Crook estimates that thousands of teenagers have worked for him in the last 40 years as a way of earning money for that first car or helping support their families. For many students, working at Crook's was their first job and helped them learn the importance of hard work and honesty.

The anonymous letter writer told Crook that the lessons learned at the grocery served him well in later life.

"It was an education working in a grocery store in the '50s and meant a lot to me

" I thank you and your dad for giving me the opportunity just to have a job.

"I don't think we really know how to appreciate the opportunity until late in life," said the writer.

If the letter writer is reading this article, Crook said he's grateful he could provide the young teenager with guidance and hopes everybody that works for him learns the power of honesty and hard work.