PAYBACK TIME
I got an early birthday present this year… but it wasn’t the gift I thought I was getting and it came at a cost. Here’s what happened: On the day before I turned 65, I rode my bicycle to one of England’s big-name super markets with my credit card and a bunch of vouchers in my wallet. To get my full discount, I needed to buy £50 worth of goods. That translates to P750, so I had a lot of items to add up as they went into the trolley.
When I thought I’d hit my target, I went to the till to pay, but the cashier told me the bill only came to £48.15, so I ran back to get a couple of chocolate bars. Then, as I handed over the vouchers and paid the bill, I was in a hurry because I didn’t like holding up the other shoppers .
That’s my excuse for not noticing I hadn’t put all my shopping through the till… which in turn is my excuse for getting the maths wrong.
Anyway, when I got to my bicycle, I spotted a thin box of smoked salmon that I hadn’t paid for wedged in the corner of the trolly. I was already outside and I couldn’t be bothered to go back into the store to pay for it, so I treated the fish as a gift, packed my backpack and saddle bags and set off for home with a mildly guilty conscience.
Only ‘mildly’ because I’m fairly certain the store has taken more than its fair share of my money in the past when listed prices haven’t matched up with what I’ve been charged at the till. But I knew that didn’t justify poaching the salmon… so I wasn’t terribly surprised when things started going wrong.
The first thing I noticed when I got home was that the kick-stand had fallen off my bike somewhere along the 30-minute ride. Then, when I unpacked the shopping and had a close look at the receipt, I saw that two of my discount vouchers hadn’t registered, so the store over
charged me by £9. The smoked salmon I failed to pay for would have cost £7, so I lost out by £2 or P30.
I could see that voucher rip-off as another justification for not going back to pay for the fish, but I am fairly certain it was karma, or cosmic pay-back for failing to do the right thing. And it wasn’t just instant karma, it was more like the universe was making a pre-emptive strike to punish me for an offence I was about to commit. Our relationship often seems to work that way.
So, I didn’t get a free pack of dried fish for my birthday, but I did get another valuable gift. A reminder that there is a lot more going on in this world than we can ever hope to understand, and that makes me very happy. I also learned, once again, that in the long-run and sometimes in the short-run as well, it’s a good idea to listen to our consciences.
We really do know the difference between right and wrong… and so does whoever, or whatever, it is that’s running the show.