Kuala Lumpur January 2018 “Right Change”
01/01/18 04:16
I love walking to Ben's in the evening because it is cool. Now perhaps I had better explain that Ben's is the name of our local grocery store and not one of my friends and whilst I consider this store to be trendy, my use of coolness here refers to the temperature and not what is on sale. Now it isn't Malaysia's fault that it is so hot because where I live is just 3 degrees north of the equator. Wow, let me think about that for a second, if you had asked me, say ten years ago, whether I would ever visit countries on the equator I would have laughed and said no. After all that line on the Earth runs through South America, Africa and no where else as far as I remembered. (Indonesia is the big one missing from that list and I would probably have left it off even had I been prompted back then). There is no dry season here, no summer or winter and the sun rises and sets at roughly the same time every day, 07.15 and 19.15.. It’s generally hot & wet all year long, with heavy rainfall in the afternoon after which the temperature drops several degrees. That's what makes my Ben's visits so pleasurable, the temperature is now that of a hot day in England and I like that. I am so regular in coming here that both staff and the security guards recognise and acknowledge me when I turn up.
This particular evening I bought my usual ice cream and drinks, handed over a $20 note, collected my change and headed home consuming the ice cream on the way. Nothing unusual here but something was wrong and I knew it. In the change I had been given was a green $5 note and as I walked back I wondered how that could be. I thought I had spent $8 so with a $10 note in my change being given another $5 could not be right. I thought back to the payment. The man on the till had been distracted by a colleague when sorting out my change, might that be the reason? By now I had eaten my ice cream and so was well on my way home. The answer would be in the till receipt but I had thrown that in the bin when I left the shop. In monetary terms $5 is £1 in UK money, not a big deal but then I am not in the UK. Maybe here the cashier would have to make up any till shortfall out of his own earnings? I stopped walking, what should I do and did it really matter, after all it wasn't my fault!
I recognised that voice inside me, it was the one that I heard when once I had cheated with a railway ticket so I turned and walked back to the shop. I looked inside the waste bin and pulled out my receipt. He had misread an 8 as a 3 and that was why I had the extra $5 note. I waited until there was no one at his till and then handed him the $5 note. My explanation “You gave me too much change” was met with a blank look, maybe no one gives money back here? I insisted and he took it from me. Now I could go home in peace apart from a naughty feeling inside me saying perhaps I should have bought another ice cream with the money!
This particular evening I bought my usual ice cream and drinks, handed over a $20 note, collected my change and headed home consuming the ice cream on the way. Nothing unusual here but something was wrong and I knew it. In the change I had been given was a green $5 note and as I walked back I wondered how that could be. I thought I had spent $8 so with a $10 note in my change being given another $5 could not be right. I thought back to the payment. The man on the till had been distracted by a colleague when sorting out my change, might that be the reason? By now I had eaten my ice cream and so was well on my way home. The answer would be in the till receipt but I had thrown that in the bin when I left the shop. In monetary terms $5 is £1 in UK money, not a big deal but then I am not in the UK. Maybe here the cashier would have to make up any till shortfall out of his own earnings? I stopped walking, what should I do and did it really matter, after all it wasn't my fault!
I recognised that voice inside me, it was the one that I heard when once I had cheated with a railway ticket so I turned and walked back to the shop. I looked inside the waste bin and pulled out my receipt. He had misread an 8 as a 3 and that was why I had the extra $5 note. I waited until there was no one at his till and then handed him the $5 note. My explanation “You gave me too much change” was met with a blank look, maybe no one gives money back here? I insisted and he took it from me. Now I could go home in peace apart from a naughty feeling inside me saying perhaps I should have bought another ice cream with the money!