Paying It Forward

A good friend uses the term “Bank Error In Your Favor” when he comes across some unexpected beneficial financial transaction. The term derives from the Community Chest card from the classic Monopoly Board Game. A subclass of the general Bank Error In Your Favor condition is the “Too Much Change” ethical dilemma whereby a cashier gives you back too much change during a transaction. The theme of this post is to describe a recent personal encounter with Too Much Change back in the fall. 

I was returning home after the Duke-Wake Forest game on October 22 with brother Rich and sister-in-law Lora when it was determined that a stop at the grocery store was to be made to acquire some additional Adult Beverages for the post-game festivities. The most convenient location on the way home was the Food Lion at Bennett Pointe Shopping Center off of Hillsborough Road in Durham.

In addition to the beer run, I decided to make this trip multi-purpose and spoil Chris’ dog Hailey by purchasing one of her favorite snacks – a 25 oz. bag of Purina Beggin Strips – Bacon Flavor.

Hailey was spending that long day by herself at my house while the rest of us were enjoying some food, drink, and college football. The Beggin Strips (aka Doggy Crack Cocaine) are a highly tasty, low-fat, and nutritious snack but they are a bit pricey. The 25 oz. bag runs around $9.50.

Rich graciously agreed to pay for the beer, so I made my way to the Express Lane to pay for Hailey’s Beggin Strips. This particular store is conveniently located on the way back from work, so I frequent it often and personally know the manager, a friend of one of my son’s named Jason, who has tailgated with us a couple of times.

I had never seen this particular cashier – she must have been new to the job and looked to be in high school. I gave the cashier a twenty and I noticed that she started making change as if I had given her $100! Hmmm – free money, eh? I’ll have to admit I was a bit taken back (at least briefly), but by the time she got to the fourth twenty I had internally decided that there was no way I could effectively steal $80 from her or from the store.

Still somewhat flustered and trying to reconcile how she could have thought that I gave her $100 and allow her to save some face, I confusingly mumbled: “Ahhh – I think I only gave you a ten.” Maybe for some reason, she saw an extra 0 there? But I them immediately corrected myself. We eventually sorted things out - she was pretty shook up at this point and very grateful as it probably would have taken her quite a few shifts to work off that shortage (assuming she didn’t get a harsher discipline).

Rich, currently honing his post-retirement retail chops at a VA Department of ABC store, expertly pointed out that the young cashier had made the classic mistake of depositing the tendered currency from the customer out-of-sight into the cash register before making the change.

That night before bedtime, I was noodling on that day’s episode and wondering if I would have behaved differently under different conditions. For example:

1. What if I really was in need of that extra money to feed or house my family?
2. What if I wasn’t a regular customer at that establishment, say just passing through on a trip?
3. What if I didn’t personally know the manager?
4. What if the cashier was an older experienced cashier instead of a young inexperienced high school student?
5. What if the cashier acted like a jerk in previous encounters?
6. What if the amount of incorrect change was significantly smaller? Or significantly larger?
7. What if close family members weren’t present when confronted with this dilemma?

I came to the conclusion that the only one of those conditions that would have maybe given me pause was the first one. In fact, it felt like my response was wired in – I wasn’t really calculating a response by rationally weighing any of these considerations or variables.

I also came to the conclusion that most people would have behaved similarly, but was curious if there was any fact-based evidence behind that conclusion of mine. A superficial Web search yielded a mix bag of answers.

This study (from ABC Primetime) revealed disappointing ethical results while this paper cites a formal study where one out of four consumers would take the money and run. Aussie’s, on the other hand, ethically rule (at least when getting back too much change for their coffee).

Paying It Forward.