# You buy something. In the car you find the clerk gave you a 50 instead of a 10. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 24, 2005, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-buy-something-in-the-car-you-find-the-clerk-gave-you-a-50-instead-of-a-10/291775 "2005-02-24T22:30:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-buy-something-in-the-car-you-find-the-clerk-gave-you-a-50-instead-of-a-10/291775/201 "2005-05-03T13:29:21Z")
> [@chaparralv8](#): > > I kept an eagle eye on the cash drawer and mentally ran a tally when I worked in retail. If I knew I was $10 short, I knew I’d have to use my sleight-of-hand to shortchange 8 customers a dollar each and 8 other customers a quarter each. If I were $50 short, I’d have had to shortchange every customer for an hour. This has _got_ to be a whoosh. If you ever did actually pull something like this, I almost agree with **Bambi Hassenpfeffer**. I say “almost” because I’d make you track down any customers you did that to that we could track down, apologize to them, and give them the correct change. _Then_ I’d fire you. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-buy-something-in-the-car-you-find-the-clerk-gave-you-a-50-instead-of-a-10/291775/202 "2005-05-03T21:21:14Z")
I have no doubt but that this is entirely true. You angry manager-types, you gonna scan the fuzzy B&W low-resolution video to catch just where this person shortchanged to make it up? And, then, miraculously track down the **CASH TRANSACTION** customers one by one so the aforementioned bad cashier can hand them their stolen money back? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![chaparralv8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@chaparralv8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaparralv8)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-buy-something-in-the-car-you-find-the-clerk-gave-you-a-50-instead-of-a-10/291775/203 "2005-05-03T21:41:20Z")
> [@InvisibleWombat](#): > > This has _got_ to be a whoosh. > > If you ever did actually pull something like this, I almost agree with **Bambi Hassenpfeffer**. I say “almost” because I’d make you track down any customers you did that to that we could track down, apologize to them, and give them the correct change. _Then_ I’d fire you. Yes, it is a whoosh. My hands are bad enough that I fumble for change at every tollbooth. They’re bad enough that I cannot catch a perfectly-thrown football, baseball, or basketball that the thrower wants me to have. If I ever tried to shortchange somebody, they’d probably end up a dollar or two long - and I’d have to slip 'em a buck to make them think they were getting honest change. I’ve never worked retail and hopefully never will. It’s just that I don’t believe that 80% percent of people would return a bunch of extra money if they found it - even if they’re feeling flush right now. I also find it even more difficult to believe that the other 20% would openly admit that they were dishonest - isn’t stealing $40 just as wrong as stealing $1 forty times? ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2005, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-buy-something-in-the-car-you-find-the-clerk-gave-you-a-50-instead-of-a-10/291775/204 "2005-05-05T03:11:43Z")
> [@chaparralv8](#): > > It’s just that I don’t believe that 80% percent of people would return a bunch of extra money if they found it - even if they’re feeling flush right now. I also find it even more difficult to believe that the other 20% would openly admit that they were dishonest - isn’t stealing $40 just as wrong as stealing $1 forty times? I really don’t know about the percentages. I just know that there are both types of people in the world and many in between. I have a retail store. A kid came in to buy some cards a couple of weeks ago, and couldn’t find his money. He was really upset. He had $5, and he just couldn’t find it. An hour later, I was putting some things away and found a $5 bill on the floor. I set it aside, and when the kid came in the next day with more money, I handed him his $5. It made his day, and that made me feel a heck of a lot better than the $5 would have made me feel. And finding it difficult to believe people would admit to stealing money? I have no trouble believing it. Some dishonest people try to fool themselves into thinking they’re honest, and some folks seem to be downright proud of their dishonesty. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-buy-something-in-the-car-you-find-the-clerk-gave-you-a-50-instead-of-a-10/291775.md?page=10)