Over in Florida I was buying some fags...
In Walgreens, which is sort of a boots/poundstretcher combo. Bought two packs, left the shop, looked at the receipt later and realised I'd only been charged for one.

Next day I went back to the shop with the receipt to pay for the other one, in a fit of honesty.

The woman behind the counter looked at me as if I'd just asked her to empty the till. Without breaking eye contact with me (which was difficult as it was on her right hand side behind her) she reached for the tannoy thing and shouted for the manager to the desk. Until he arrived she stood there looking suspiciously at me.

Some long, long minutes later he arrives and she tries to explain it to him - she's careful to use language to indicate I'm not to be trusted "he says he bought two but we only rang through one". Eventually the manager struggles to get her to ring it up on the till... and I leave without a thank you, being treated as if I'd coiled a hangover shite on her daughter's wedding dress in front of the entire family.

Apologies for the king size length.
( Halk, Thu 9 Feb 2012, 14:44, 15 replies)

If you think that is a 'king size length' I feel sorry for your girlfriend.
Oh, wait, 'girlfriend', Ha! what was I thinking? Silly me.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Thu 9 Feb 2012, 14:46, closed)

Why would you do this?
A large company can easily absorb such a small loss (and factors such shrinkage into it's budget). All you did was make the cashier look foolish, which would explain why she was so frosty with you.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Thu 9 Feb 2012, 14:59, closed)

Difficult to explain...
I've been brought up to be very honest that way. Perhaps it's some kind of personality quirk - although my dad doesn't share it now.. there was a head of garlic in his shopping trolley when he picked it up yesterday, he took it all around the shop, through the checkout and when he got to his car he put it in his shopping bags, saying he'd got it free. I felt uncomfortable with it. I don't like 'stealing', even if it's by accident.. I like things to be exactly honest that way. I'm a wee bit funny that way but surely I'm not alone.
( Halk, Thu 9 Feb 2012, 15:06, closed)

I was the guy on the customer service desk at a large multinational supermarket
when a woman came back in with a garlic bulb she'd found in her shopping trolley, requesting to pay for it. While it's not something I would have bothered with myself, I did what she would probably have expected: I smiled, thanked her for her honesty and charged her 47p for it.
( AWPS, Thu 9 Feb 2012, 15:28, closed)

47p is worth it
To feel all is right in the world.
( Halk, Thu 9 Feb 2012, 16:41, closed)

10p
Back in the seventies, I bought something from a local stationers. The woman undercharged me by 10p (not much now but fortune back then) so I said "that's not right".

She snapped back "oh yes it is" without letting me explain so I just left the shop.
(BearWithLittleBrain, Thu 9 Feb 2012, 15:52, closed)

It's not stealing,
it's just a happy accident that worked out in your favour.

Still, I suppose I should admire your unwavering honesty high placement on the autistic spectrum.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Thu 9 Feb 2012, 15:58, closed)

And if they're too incompetent to get basic transactions right, then frankly they deserve all they get.

( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Thu 9 Feb 2012, 15:51, closed)

This has been a party political broadcast,
on behalf of the Conservative party.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Thu 9 Feb 2012, 15:54, closed)

No, then I'd have advocated changing the law to accommodate folk who can't or won't do their job right.

( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Thu 9 Feb 2012, 18:00, closed)

I think it's safe to say that if it was her that served you the night before
she was pissed off 'cause she was probably going to get a bollocking from the manager for fucking up in the first place.
(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Fri 10 Feb 2012, 8:16, closed)

You said the "magic words" - "Over in Florida" (God's waiting room). It's a strange place, despite the large cities (Orlando, Miami, etc) there are some interesting rural areas, populated by "crackers" (read: redneck hicks). No real surprise that it is a hotbed of Tea-Bag (that is, Tea Party) political activity. Not quite as bad as other places in the US deep south, but there are some strange people living there.
(Maclir, Thu 9 Feb 2012, 15:51, closed)

What REALLY happened...
... after you left the shop, the till assistant realised her mistake and got out her purse to make up the difference herself, terrified that in a hire-and-fire state like Florida, any mistake would cost her the job.

She put her own money, from her minimum wage salary, into the till to save her job after making an easy mistake.

Then you waltz back in asking to repay the error, waving documentary evidence that it has been made, making her look foolish again but this time in front of other customers. Rather than make a let you continue making a scene, she gives in and calls the boss. '

She does this knowing that the exposure of her mistake (even though it is about to be rectified by you) illustrates her own weaknesses and could still cost her the job, that her well-meaning attempt to correct it out of her own pocket represents a frowned-upon propensity to rummage around in the cash till more than necessary and to keep things from her boss, and that she's down on the deal herself and her employers are getting double the actual value they should.

So you cost her money AND her job, just to make yourself feel better.

Glad to be of service...
( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Thu 9 Feb 2012, 17:39, closed)

And then
I hid outside and raped her.

Up the bum.
( Halk, Fri 10 Feb 2012, 17:03, closed)

muppet
Should have just walked and not talked.

Raping her after she had lost her job was a bit on the strong side mind you. Did you go back and try and pay for that too?
(Suck it and Sea, Fri 10 Feb 2012, 19:10, closed)