A nickel… and a $9 handshake

NickelYesterday I was at the club I belong to and we were painting a room.  We needed an item from Home Depot so I volunteered to run over and get it.  I found the item and it was $10.99.  I got to the check-out and the total was $11.72 with tax.  I handed the cashier a $20 bill and said I had some change.  I also gave him three quarters and two pennies which is 77 cents.  Total tendered $20.77

He proceeds to put the cash in the drawer and closes it.  I stick my hand out and before I could say I’d like my change, he shakes my hand.  I chuckle and say,” I didn’t get my change”.  Like a deer that has just been blasted with the headlights of an oncoming car, he froze. It was like he was in a Sci Fi movie and his world froze in time.  After a moment he started pushing buttons on his register touchscreen but to no avail.  Nothing he did would open the drawer.  He then asked, “Could you wait just a minute?”  I said I would. 

He turned to the couple behind me in line and rang up their six or eight home improvement needs.  He gave them the total and they swiped their credit card in the card terminal.  Well, the cash drawer doesn’t open for a credit transaction. 

He seemed even more flustered.  Rather than call a supervisor to open the drawer he grabbed a screwdriver from a display on the counter and scanned it as a sale.  He completed that sale and finally the drawer opened.  He reached in and gave me a quarter.  I handed it back to him and said, “This is a quarter, you just owe me is a nickel.  It’s only a nickel, but it’s my nickel.”  He takes the quarter and gives me my nickel. 

 I left the store chuckling to myself.  I wasn’t angry, everybody makes mistakes, but to not know that he owed me a nickel instead of a quarter made me wonder about him.  Anyway, I had gotten my nickel.  It was the principle of the thing.

As I was returning with the item I bought I just realized I had given the cashier a $20 bill and only got a nickel back.  Where was my $9?  I checked my pockets and sure enough I didn’t have $9 on me, so I know he didn’t give that to me either.  I’m sure he had no clue that he got me for $9.00.

But, I got my damn nickel! …. And a $9 handshake!

 

8 thoughts on “A nickel… and a $9 handshake”

  1. I picked up some things at a local store and thought it would cost a little less than $20, I place a $20 on the counter and the total came to $20.49 So I picked up that $20 and plopped down a Fifty. When I got home I realized that the clerk had given me $49.51 change.
    The receipt showed I gave her a twenty and a fifty. oops.
    I still feel a little bad about it. when I think about it.
    Bud light and Foot Ball Munchies $0.49

  2. PinB – As a teacher, i can recognise student confusion, but maybe he was being dumb as a fox and that would explain the home schooling…

Leave a Comment