The people originally ahead of that someone would probably not have found this to be nice.
It’d be silly for them to get upset over two people effectively switching places in line. They were #155 behind #153 and #154. In the absence of #153, the person with ticket #154 got served. Before #155 came up, #153 came back and took the slot of the erstwhile #154. All is fine.
Of course if #155 was being served and #153 came back and asked to go ahead of #156, it would be within #156’s right to refuse and tell her to “get to the back of the line”, but personally if I were #156 I’d be fine with it on the principle of “you were ahead of me anyway when I took my ticket”.
If the person leaving “for just a sec” to get her mother wanted to keep her relative place in line (knowing it was coming up), she should just have either (a) taken her ticket with her and resigned herself to possibly missing her slot and getting a new ticket if they didn’t get back in time, or (b) if she knew you were #154, ask to switch tickets with you. Anything else is abandonment.
And all this fuss is only even worth talking about if the line got REALLY long behind her. She shouldn’t be upset if she leaves the line when she’s next, then comes back and has to get at the back of a line 2 or 3 people long, nor should people care if someone who had been in front of them before steps away for a few minutes to fetch someone else before getting served before them. If it was a long line she should have coordinated with her mother better.
He didn’t do anything wrong. What’s your point? Should we put the OP in jail for number theft?
What on earth is this about? I never said the OP did anything wrong, much less advised putting him in jail.
It’s a joke (about jail). You said he didn’t so anything right which means he must have done something wrong.
That’s not actually the case though. Actions can be neutral in regard to their rightness/wrongness. (and obviously the jail thing was a joke. death is the only just punishment for true deli crimes)
If she knew she was coming right back, why wouldn’t she put the number in her pocket? Total idiot.
And yet people would get upset. Are numbers transferable? Some might say yes, others would say no. The alternative is that #153 left and they lost their spot, and #155 gets served one person earlier.
A long line is not a place where people always think charitably of their fellow man.
Unless I handed it to them. Then I am certain they would have been fine with it. I don’t see anyone saying, Oh no, I’m number 160, I can’t take your 153…it wouldn’t be fair to 154-159.
Really it doesn’t matter. If I kept my ticket they’d have to wait their turn. If I give my ticket to someone, they have exactly the same amount of time to wait.
The only thing I would have done differently would have been to take 153 and NOT use it. Since you were 154, they would have moved on to your “real” number right away. Then when she got back she would see they were on 154 and not think you used her number. Using 153 makes it look like you jumped the queue even though you didn’t.
Death? Bullshit. Society just needs to take a pound of the deli thief’s flesh.
How thinly would you like that sliced?
Get that thumb off the scale!
True. And since LaurenIpsum didn’t know what number they were on, I have to ask:
Don’t most delis have a number display of what they’re on? And don’t most have a recepticle for used numbers? Mine has both. If I saw 152 on the display, I’d put the 153 in the little basket.
I don’t like thumbs. Not enough meat.