Is it that weird to be honest ?

[ShootMePlease]

I was at the Wawa the other day getting my Diet Lemonade Tea and a few other snacks. I paid with cash, which I don't normally do, but I wanted to break the $10 bill I had. The cashier gave me back my change and when I went to put it in my pocket I noticed he gave me 2 $5 bills back instead of 1 (totally understandable, as they were brand new and they stick together more times than not).

I immediately handed the cashier the extra $5 bill back. He looked at me like I was crazy. The other cashier looked at me funny, too. Then my cashier apologized to me. I just said "oooooook" and walked out the door. I'm a decent person, and I would have been less than scum if I waltzed out of there with more money than I should have knowing someone would get in trouble for an honest mistake.

What's sad is that I guess it was weird for someone to be honest.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

It always kind of embarrasses me when someone acts shocked when I am trying to be a decent person. I'm not really embarrassed for me, but I am a little embarrassed for them. Not when they're just grateful...I get seeing a long string of scumbags every day and then being surprised and grateful when someone isn't. What embarrasses me is when they act like I'm a little nuts for being decent.

I'm embarrassed for them, because it makes me wonder what kind of person THEY are that the idea of someone being decent is an alien concept.

[Slayer]

lol, I feel that way sometimes, too.

Since we have $2 and $1 coins, it's sometimes too much counting for some of my customers so every once in a while, they give me too many coins. I hand back the extra and I always get shocked looks. I've gotten the "wow, you're honest" comment a few times.

Which then makes me put on my "seriously, that's a big deal?" face. I'm not interested in stealing their money XD

It's only happened once that someone paid me $60 for a $37 bill. I slid the $20 towards them and held up the other two. I still remember the look on their face .

[Slave to the Phone]

I have a co-worker who thinks that its great to steal because someone made a mistake.

One day he came in bragging that the cashier had only scanned part of his new, expensive BBQ. He saved almost $300 because he didn't get charged for the extra parts that were on the bottom of his cart.

Another time, he was handing out high end lip balm. It seems as though he got an unopened box and bullied the cashier into selling it to him for the price of 1 stick because that's how the shelf was marked.

He wonders why I won't socialize with him after work.

[Kal]

I got a £10 back in my change the other week when it should have been £5 and it ended up needing a manager out to clear it up. Apparently they were so used to people saying "Where's the rest of my change?" that they hadn't got anything set up for "You gave me too much change" instead. I ended up swapping the £10 for £5 and left my contact details so they could get in touch if they needed to (they didn't though, so clearly the till balanced at the end of the day).
If I hadn't done it though I'd have felt guilty about getting someone else in trouble (albeit self-inflicted) and taking money that wasn't mine. I blame my parents for it, they brought me up with a conscience.

[Tithera]

It's the same way in my town. Just a few weeks ago, I went to the little 'ghetto' gas station down the road from us (this is literally it's nickname, "Gold Star Ghetto" named by everyone that I've ever met there). I walked back out and happened to look down and found at least $25 in cash lying on the sidewalk. I didn't even think twice, I picked it up and went back inside, handed the money to cashier stating "Hey I found this outside." She looked at me with pure astonishment and said, "Wow. You're really honest." "Well you never know if someone comes looking for it or not. I've lost money before and went back to find it and never did, and it turned that day into a very crappy day. I don't want someone else to have to go through that." and I left. Plus, I want to keep my good karma count up, just to careful

[Argabarga]

I was in the convenience store the other day and picked up a soda and a sandwich, the clerk rang them up and it came up to $2, which didn't sound right. So I told him he might want to run it again. Somehow, he had missed scanning the sandwich altogether, but didn't notice it, the real total then came to the $5 I expected.

He didn't understand why I didn't run with the mistake

I too am kinda disappointed that he thought I did the "wrong" thing too.

I had a similar experience at the grocery a bit before that where the cashier missed scanning an item, they passed it over the laser, but it didn't beep. They had put it all the way in the bag before I pointed out it hadn't scanned. They at least thanked me for pointing it out instead of looking at me like I'd grown a second head.

It's kinda sad that honesty is apparently so rare, it has to be thanked when it happens.....

[Gizmo]

I've done it a few times lately - either given back change when someone gave me too much or let them know they'd forgotten to ring something up. The most recent was our local small coffee booth who forgot to ring up the extra £0.30 for a syrup flavour - I know they work hard so I'm not going to profit from their mistake!

I hate it when people take advantage of it under the "The Man (TM) rips me off so why should I correct their mistake...".

I learned to notice when I was working retail last Christmas when someone had that "I'm going to get away with it..." look on their face - once when I'd rung up one crate of beer instead of QtyX3 ringing. His face told me just before I started to process his card that he thought he was getting away with it and it suddenly dawned on me. He soon turned to CBF when I asked for one back as I hadn't rung all three up! (He was only going to pay for 2 anyway - it was a 3 for 2 deal!)

[Merriweather]

I guess I'm an honest person with limits, LOL. I'm realistic. I do correct any and all mistakes I notice (overpayments, non-scans, etc) - it's good karma, and I hate the feeling of guilt I would have if I didn't. I'm especially vigilant on mistakes that a cashier could be held accountable for, and for mistakes made at small businesses (who operate on a much smaller profit margin than a big corporation).

However, if a mistake happens that I don't notice til later on, and the only negative effect is to the profits of some huge corporation, my honesty has limits. In other words, I am not one of these people who will drive 20 miles back to a superstore to correct a small mistake made by them in the first place, spending my own time & gas money because someone else did something wrong. Maybe it isn't 100% honest of me, but my budget just doesn't allow for me to spend my own money to correct someone else's mistakes, not unless it's a huge one, or something a cashier would get into trouble over.

[Gizmo]

However, if a mistake happens that I don't notice til later on, and the only negative effect is to the profits of some huge corporation, my honesty has limits. In other words, I am not one of these people who will drive 20 miles back to a superstore to correct a small mistake made by them in the first place, spending my own time & gas money because someone else did something wrong.

I won't either. If its somewhere I go often - especially if its a small place I might (edit: most probably will if i haven't forgotten) tell them the next time I go in and offer to pay the difference. If its a big place I'm less likely to, probably because I've forgotten by the time I go there next!

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

A few years back when I was a receptionist and general office bitch, I was sent to Target to get stuff. The total was really low, but there was a line. I scooted to the side, checked the receipt and a good third of the stuff hadn't been scanned. Went to customer service and got that taken care of.

My bosses weren't impressed. They'd rather I walked off with everything. Ya'll don't pay me enough to be a shoplifter.

Not like I was going to get a drop of all that soda, anyway.

[Racket_Man]

Ya know this speaks volumns about the "rareity" of an honest well behaved person these days. esp us retail slaves who get so beaten up (sometimes literally) and screamed at (by the customer and our managers)for daring to to be honest.

The idea of an honest person (one who will not try and game the system, rip off or steal or cheat The Man) is now IMO a strange and mytical concept. ya know the stuff of legends and tall tales.

in times past honesty was a large part of a persons integrity and bond.

Now it is everyone for themselves.

[lobo94]

I've gotten that, too. The shock, then, "Wow! Thank you for being honest."

"shrug" My mother raised me to be honest.

[Bella_Vixen]

I'm embarrassed for them, because it makes me wonder what kind of person THEY are that the idea of someone being decent is an alien concept.

No kidding.

And it makes me want to cry when people overpay, and they do the "Wow! You're so honest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" crap when I give them the extra money back.

[wolfie]

Many years ago I bought a sewing machine at the local Sears - it was a 10 stitch model in a line that had 10, 12, and 14. Salesperson got the boxed one out of the back room, I paid, and went home. When I got home (almost closing time) I realized that it was the 14 stitch model. Called the store (same salesperson picked up the phone) and explained the problem. He told me what his schedule was, and I arranged to go in and make the exchange on a day he was working - I guess that way, he was able to make the problem "unhappen".