Mrs. Johnson was a perfect but distant figure in the neighborhood, always in sharp business attire and rarely acknowledging anyone. This didn’t bother the narrator until her son, Ethan, took on a job mowing Mrs. Johnson’s large lawn for twenty dollars. Ethan worked hard for two days, but when he went to collect his pay, Mrs. Johnson dismissed him, saying, “hard work was its own reward.” Seeing Ethan’s disappointment, his mother felt a surge of protective anger. Determined to ensure her son got the respect he deserved, she called her friend Mark, who owned a landscaping business, and hatched a plan. Mark trimmed Mrs. Johnson’s hedges into humorous shapes, and soon after, three truckloads of mulch were dumped onto Mrs. Johnson’s driveway, blocking her car and causing a spectacle among the neighbors.

When Mrs. Johnson came home and saw the piles of mulch, her shock quickly turned to anger. She confronted Ethan’s mother, who calmly reminded her of how she had dismissed Ethan’s hard work. With a huff, Mrs. Johnson reluctantly pulled out a crumpled twenty-dollar bill, which Ethan accepted with encouragement from his mother.

From that day forward, Mrs. Johnson didn’t ask Ethan for help again. The incident became a neighborhood story, a “cautionary tale” on the value of honesty and the consequences of taking advantage of others. The mulch eventually disappeared, but the message of fairness and respect stayed fresh in everyone’s mind.