The "My Hand Bleeds For You! Story

It was an ordinary day.  Working a few hours at Grebinger Gallery in Neffsville, Pennsylvania in hopes of trying to get Keith, the owner and former student of mine, caught up from my two months off due to back surgery.  I can work just a few hours at a time before I become exhausted or my back begins to hurt.  Today Keith gave me a few jobs that I estimated would take me 2 to 3 hours to complete.  Halfway through the jobs he brings a customer's diploma from our upstairs gallery to place in a diploma mat and frame which I had made yesterday.  Wanted me to do the job immediately since the customer was waiting for it in the gallery.  Normally easy job to accomplish in perhaps 5 to 10 minutes.  Took the pre-made mat and frame apart and grabbed a cloth and glass cleaner to clean the glass before I put the diploma in place and finish the job.   With the glass clean, I took the customer's diploma and placed it under the diploma mat.  As I was moving the mat around over the diploma to make sure it was centered, I noticed a small red spot on the diploma.  Looked more closely and realized it was a drop of my blood that had come from a small cut I just got when I cleaned the glass.  Now what do I do?  Blood isn't something you can erase like a pencil smudge.  I used the corner of a tissue to absorb the liquid blood and took a hair-dryer to thoroughly dry what remained.  Took a razor blade and began to lightly scrape over the blood spot.  Within a minute I had removed the spot, but had created a rough surface on the diploma.  Would anyone notice it?  I finished the job and when Keith came to retrieve it I asked him if he could see any marks on the diploma.  He knew right away I must have a reason for my question.  He looked at it quite a few times and eventually saw the small spot.  I told him what had happened and said I would go upstairs with him and tell the customer what had happened.  I don't have any blood diseases, but some people would feel very uneasy knowing that the small spot was at one time a drop of blood.  The woman I met had bought the mat and frame for her son's diploma which I had just put in place.  I told her what had happened and asked her to look at the diploma and see if she could see any problems with it.  I told her if she did I would gladly pay for another diploma to be sent to her son and do the job over.  She looked and looked and finally I had to point out the spot.  Only then did she see it.  I believe she was amazed that I would tell her what I had done when it was that hard to see.  If it had been a spot created by a drop of ink or maybe a marker spot, I may not had told anyone, but a drop of my own blood...well I thought she had to know.  She thanked me and said it didn't bother her since she could hardly see it, but said if her son had a problem she would return the mat and frame along with a new diploma and I could do it over again.  Keith or myself haven't heard a thing, so I assume all is well.  If I had not done what I did I would have worried that at some time they would see it and eventually return it, but with a complaint.  Sometimes it pays to fess up for mistakes you may make in life.  In this case it had, so far, a happy ending.  Have you ever been in a similar situation such as I?  Did you do the right thing?  I must admit there may have been other times in my life that I never disclosed something I did that I shouldn't have, but with age comes wisdom.  At least this one time.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.