Trust in a tea cup

In 1987, some of my colleagues at Indian Railways and I were sent to Bangalore (now Bengaluru) for training at the Foremen Training Institute (FTI).

During an industrial visit to Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) there, we stopped on the shop floor for a tea break. One of the workers went to the tea stall, placed 20 coupons, picked up a tray with 20 cups of tea, and returned.

Moments later, a contractor’s staff came and collected the tea container and the coupons without a word or a count.

Curious, we asked the shop in-charge, “Why didn’t he count? What if your staff member had placed less number of coupons?”

The in-charge smiled and replied, “He won’t. Here, honesty isn’t enforced — it’s lived. If someone cheats, his own teammates will call him out. Integrity is our unwritten rule here.”

Nearly 40 years later, that moment is clearly etched in my mind because that day we didn’t just witness efficiency — we witnessed a culture where trust wasn’t monitored but earned, protected, and proudly upheld.

GP Singh Sandhu, Mohali