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Twelve years ago, a young girl just graduated and went to France, starting a work-study life. Gradually, she discovered that the local public transport system's ticket offices were self-service, meaning you bought tickets based on your destination, and stations were almost open with no ticket gates or inspectors. Even random checks were very rare. She found this management loophole, or what she considered a loophole. Using her cleverness, she precisely estimated the probability of being caught for fare evasion: only about three in ten thousand.
She was pleased with her discovery and began frequently riding without tickets. She also found a justification: she was still a poor student, so saving a little was good.
Four years later, with a prestigious university's golden brand and excellent academic record, she was confident and began frequently entering the doors of multinational companies in Paris, ambitiously selling herself.
But these companies were initially enthusiastic, yet after a few days, they politely declined. Repeated failures made her angry. She believed these companies had racial discrimination tendencies and excluded foreigners.
Finally, she stormed into the office of a company's HR manager, demanding a reasonable explanation for not hiring her. However, the outcome was unexpected. The following dialogue is quite thought-provoking.
"Madam, we are not discriminating against you; on the contrary, we value you. When you applied, we were very interested in your educational background and academic level. Honestly, in terms of work ability, you are exactly who we are looking for."
"Then why not accept a talented person for your company?"
"Because we checked your credit record and found you have three records of fare evasion on buses."
"I don't deny that. But for such a small matter, you would give up a talent who has published papers in academic journals multiple times?"
"Small matter? We don't think so. We noticed that the first evasion was in the first week after you arrived in our country. The inspector believed your explanation because you said you were unfamiliar with the self-service ticketing system, so they only made you pay the fare. But after that, you evaded twice more."
"At that time, I just didn't have change in my pocket."
"No, no, madam. I don't accept that explanation; you are questioning my intelligence. I believe before being caught, you may have evaded hundreds of times."
"That's not a capital offense, is it? Why be so serious? Can't I change in the future?"
"No, no, madam. This proves two points:
- You do not respect rules. You are good at finding loopholes in rules and using them maliciously.
- You are not trustworthy.
Many of our company's tasks must rely on trust, because if you are responsible for market development in a certain region, we will give you many authorities. To save costs, we cannot set up complex supervision mechanisms, just like our public transport system. So we cannot hire you. To be precise, in this country and even the entire EU, you may not find a company willing to hire you."
Only then did she wake up as if from a dream, full of regret.
However, what truly struck her was the final sentence: Morality often compensates for intelligence defects, but intelligence can never fill a moral void.
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