Sometimes it's not so easy being honest

SwingsitlikeHogan

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Had a coffee in town (yesterday as it happens) - cost £2.30. Handed over a £5 note at till. Guy gives me two £1 coins then heads off to get rest of my change. Comes back 5mins later, lots of folk around till and he's apologising for being so long. He gives me change.

As I walk out of the door I realise that he's given me £2.70 change - and he had already given me £2. I turned back to till and told him. He didn't believe me. I assured him that he had given me too much change - to which after much umming and ahhing he replied 'well I suppose have to believe you' - and took the £2 coin from me.

Blimey - sometimes it's tough being honest - but it keeps me spiritually fit. I'm guessing many if not most folk would just walk off with the £2 feeling a little smug and maybe not guilty at all. So tell me I am wrong please dear golfing community - honest citizens that we all are.
 
Blimey - sometimes it's tough being honest - but it keeps me spiritually fit. I'm guessing many if not most folk would just walk off with the £2 feeling a little smug and maybe not guilty at all. So tell me I am wrong please dear golfing community - honest citizens that we all are.

I'm with you mate.

51 views of the thread when I last looked and no other replies. Doesn't look good for golfer's "intergrity" :eek:
 
Unless it was a huge one, £2.30 for a coffee is 'theft' in the first place!


£2.30 is a cheap coffee!

Well done OP I think you are correct in the fact that the majority of folks wouldn't go back, although most blokes won't of even noticed and just slung change in there pocket.
 
i bought an ice cream the other day and the cafe owner tried to give me the change from a 20 euro note, despite me only giving him 5.
 
Happened to me in the local the other week - barmaid insisted I had given her 4.50 instead of 3.50 and I knew I hadn't. I've done bar work in the past and it's not funny for the till to be down at any point so I tried to insist she put the pound in the till but she wouldn't have it. I popped in the next day and sure enough she was down a pound :)
 
I was in tesco wokingham a couple of years ago and I bought a cheese and onion butty for a pound (now £1.30) and I gave the lad £2 coin and he gave me £9 change back. I told him you give me to much it should only be a pound and he said "I don't care I hate my job". Thaaaank you :) he still works there now and he never did it again to me :(
 
A customer paid me in cash, in new notes. He counted out the money in front of me (about£150) and left the office. He was in the yard tying some gear on his van and I just double checked what I'd seen him count and found an extra £20, I just managed to catch him and gave it back - he was a nice guy, a customer and I don't think it's right to rip them off
 
Good to know there are some honest dudes on here but as @Leftie points out - a lot of views with no comment suggests maybe we are not all.

I started doing it when I was working in a pub. Ifd the till was short at the end of the night the staff had to make up the difference. I can see why as pilfering by staff would otherwise no doubt happen. But honest mistakes overchanging can happen and I don;t think one person's honest mistake should cost others.

These days I do it to make sure I don't build up little feelings of guilt over such trivial things - we don;t need to carry around such stuff.

And besides - as mentioned elsewhere - the Big Man upstairs clearly spotted my 'good' deed as he sorted me a knock around Wentworth West this coming Saturday - courtesy of an out-of-the-blue phone call from a friend yesterday evening.

So with me feeling down on the work front at the moment and things not great - mysterious ways and all that :)
 
Good to know there are some honest dudes on here but as @Leftie points out - a lot of views with no comment suggests maybe we are not all.
Perhaps the majority on here don't feel the need to post they are honest, or are looking for sainthood ?

Sorry but I find your inference slightly distasteful. Having seen how generous at first hand forumers can be over the last few days, I think that remark is a cheap shot.
 
Perhaps the majority on here don't feel the need to post they are honest, or are looking for sainthood ?

Sorry but I find your inference slightly distasteful. Having seen how generous at first hand forumers can be over the last few days, I think that remark is a cheap shot.

Perfectly said :thup:
 
Perhaps the majority on here don't feel the need to post they are honest, or are looking for sainthood ?

Sorry but I find your inference slightly distasteful. Having seen how generous at first hand forumers can be over the last few days, I think that remark is a cheap shot.

I was kidding...lots of reasons why folk would have read and not posted. But it is easy to walk away with too much change without thinking of the consequences to others.

And I'm most definately not being goodie-goodie - I just don't need to carry around guilt.

Come on guys - I was just wondering how many folks actually do this. We talk a lot about honesty on the golf course so I would expect us here to be generally a pretty darned decent section of the community.

And my point was actually more that the guy who gave me too much change struggled to let me give him it back :)
 
I was kidding...lots of reasons why folk would have read and not posted. But it is easy to walk away with too much change without thinking of the consequences to others.

And I'm most definately not being goodie-goodie - I just don't need to carry around guilt.

Come on guys - I was just wondering how many folks actually do this. We talk a lot about honesty on the golf course so I would expect us here to be generally a pretty darned decent section of the community.

And my point was actually more that the guy who gave me too much change struggled to let me give him it back :)


same here, he looked puzzled when I only took 3.50 off the little metal tray thing...
 
I always check my change, a hangup from being a poor student 20+ years ago means I appreciate every penny. It also means that I notice too much change as well as too little. I always give back if they have handed me too much. For me it would sit on my conscience. Whether it is a large company or an independent it is still theft if you knowingly take too much change and I am also conscious that someone somewhere, usually the person on the lowest rung of the ladder, will get hammered if the till is out.

I am sure most over payments come from poor maths skills. I was taught maths in an old fashioned manner, repeating times tables, adding, subtracting etc, so my standard maths is pretty sharp. I automatically work out my change when I am told the cost of something, compared to the money I am handing over, so I know instantly if it is out.

For those who think this is a bit sad or puritanical I would add whenever I have advised people that they have given me too much change they look a mixture of surprised and grateful and the smile that comes from that is worth more than a few quid.
 
I always check my change, a hangup from being a poor student 20+ years ago means I appreciate every penny. It also means that I notice too much change as well as too little. I always give back if they have handed me too much. For me it would sit on my conscience. Whether it is a large company or an independent it is still theft if you knowingly take too much change and I am also conscious that someone somewhere, usually the person on the lowest rung of the ladder, will get hammered if the till is out.

I am sure most over payments come from poor maths skills. I was taught maths in an old fashioned manner, repeating times tables, adding, subtracting etc, so my standard maths is pretty sharp. I automatically work out my change when I am told the cost of something, compared to the money I am handing over, so I know instantly if it is out.

For those who think this is a bit sad or puritanical I would add whenever I have advised people that they have given me too much change they look a mixture of surprised and grateful and the smile that comes from that is worth more than a few quid.

Exactly. Simply the decent thing to do in consideration of others and good for yourself.
 
I weas shopping a few weeks ago and hung a bale of loo paper on the hook at the back of the trolley, after going through checkout I realised I had not put it on the conveyor belt so went to the kiosk and paid for it there.
 
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