Liz Standen wrote the Government a cheque on behalf of her late husband. Photo / Sarah Ivey
All of 42 years ago, at the age of 16, Ivan Standen pinched some petrol from a Ministry of Works truck.
On his deathbed five weeks ago, he wanted to make amends.
Mr Standen, who died after a long battle with motor neurone disease, remembered the theft during
a chat with a friend. He asked his wife of 34 years, Liz, to help him to correct it.
"They were just talking about if either of them had ever stolen anything, and he thought he hadn't," Mrs Standen said.
"Then he remembered that he had siphoned petrol when he was 16 - he was a devout Christian and he wanted to put everything right because he knew he was dying."
Mr Standen suggested a cheque should be sent to his local MP, Tauranga's Bob Clarkson, to pay for the fuel.
The 58-year-old estimated that in present-day currency the petrol would probably have been worth around $40.
So Mrs Standen wrote the cheque - making it out to the New Zealand Government - put it inside a card and sent it off to Mr Clarkson with a note explaining what the money was for.
Before she did so, she read the note to her husband.
Mr Clarkson was surprised to receive the card explaining how the affected truck had been based at Pyes Pa Rd in Tauranga.
"On reflection of his life in recent days he had it come back to him and asked me to write to you and put this wrong right," the message in the card read.
"Please accept his apologies and this token of repayment."
Mr Clarkson said yesterday that it reminded him of his father's death, when a similar thing had happened.
"He'd done something a bit naughty and he wanted to clear his conscience," the MP said.
He planned to return the cheque to Mrs Standen and let her know, on behalf of the Government, that all was forgiven.
"It is strange how the conscience never lets go of a fact, good or bad," Mr Clarkson said.
"Some people want to realise that in life, that it doesn't pay to do bad, because it stays there."
