Judy and her family get into the habit of saving money in a “family stash jar,” which is used for emergencies or for family outings. But soon, she starts noticing that someone in the family has sticky fingers, helping themselves to the money. Judy has to figure out who it is and what is the reason for such dishonesty.

I’m sure that it’s the same for most families. But in our family, honesty is the foundation of everything. I’ve always trusted my husband, Ethan, my 24-year-old son, Josh, and my 17-year-old daughter, Emma, implicitly.

So, when money started disappearing from our family stash, it felt like a punch to the gut. We’d always kept a communal jar of cash for emergencies or spontaneous outings, but lately, large sums had been vanishing without explanation.

“I must be losing my mind,” I said out loud to myself when I noticed that the jar looked a little different from when I had last put in some money.

At first, I thought that it was a simple miscalculation. But as the missing amounts grew from a $50 here, $100 there, and eventually $300 in one go, I couldn’t ignore it anymore.

“Who has sticky hands?” I asked the empty kitchen.

It gnawed at me, the uncertainty and suspicion creeping into my thoughts. I hated feeling this way about my family.

“Are you sure that it’s someone from the house?” my best friend, Misha, asked me when we met for cheesecake and wine.

“It has to be,” I said. “We don’t have a helper, and the gardener does come, but he only works outside. I don’t think he’s ever seen the inside of the house. If someone is stealing from the jar, then it has to be family.”

Misha nodded.

“Then you should install a hidden camera. Do it as close to the jar as possible,” she said.

Which is exactly what I did. I took the uncomfortable step of installing a hidden camera in the living room where we kept the stash.

Two days after setting the camera, I noticed that another $300 was missing!

“Seriously, Misha,” I said. “It’s just gone. Vanished. Disappeared. But there were some of Emma’s hairpins left next to the jar. I hope it was a coincidence and that my daughter isn’t a thief!”

“Did you install the camera like we spoke about?” she asked on the phone.

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m sitting at my laptop and waiting for it to load. I’m going to get to the bottom of this.”

Finally, the footage loaded, and what I saw left me stunned.

It wasn’t either of my children, thank goodness.

It wasn’t even Ethan, my husband.

Nope.

It was Josh’s wife, Lily, sneaking into our living room, taking the money, and then, to my utter disbelief, placing a few of Emma’s hairpins near the jar.

“What on earth is this?” I exclaimed, looking at Lily’s image on my screen.

To be completely honest, I wasn’t sure that I liked Lily to begin with. She and Josh had dated for a short while before he was convinced that she was the love of his life.

“I will marry her, Mom,” he told me when he asked for my mother’s ring.

“But it’s so soon,” I replied, not wanting my son to be married so quickly, but also not wanting to part with the ring.

“It is,” he agreed. “But I’ve never wanted anything more. And it’s the same for Lily.”

In the end, we agreed to their little wedding in our backyard because it was better to have reservations about my new daughter-in-law while keeping my son close.

That evening, I decided to talk to my husband. He needed to know what was going on.

“Ethan, are you busy?” I asked, walking into him watching TV.

“Honey, what’s wrong?” he asked, immediately turning his attention to me.

“I found out who’s been taking the money,” I said. “I have proof if you need it.”

“Who?” he asked simply.

I knew that he was trying to figure out which of our kids did it.

“Lily.”

“Lily?” he exploded. “How could she?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t know why she felt the need to do it,” I said. “But we need to handle the situation carefully. For now, I’ve moved the jar to my closet, and I’m not going to say anything. I don’t want to cause a bigger issue right before her birthday. Josh has been planning for it for so long.”