Cogs can think.

Yesterday, at work, we held our annual “Early Bird” sale. This means that the shop opens at 7am, and from 7am to 8am you get a 20% rebate, and between 8am to 9am, you get 15%. Since the prejudice of Dutch people being el-cheapo (”Let’s go Dutch.”) is actually pretty much true, the first hour is busy as hell.

So, mistakes are made by the staff. Yes, even by me.

At around 10am, I see a man entering the store, and I realise he’s one of the people I helped at the register at around 7:50am. He’s talking to one of my co-workers, I see her pointing in my direction. When I’m done helping my current customer, I shift my attention to the man. “There’s Thom,” I hear my co-worker say. The man is holding the receipt to his purchase in his hands. Shit, I’m thinking at this point, I overcharged him. It’s rare, but it happens.

“I think you did something wrong this morning, son.” No shit. “You forgot to charge me for 78 planks.”

Right now I have to explain to you that I am actually not blind. He didn’t carry those 78 planks with him to the register; he drove his car ’round back, where they were loaded into his car (and since I can’t see through walls, I didn’t know that). He did bring the usual ‘wood note’ with him, on which we write down what kind and how much wood people have bought, so the person at the register can easily enter that into the computer. I did read the note when I helped him that morning, but it said “11x wood poles [product code]”, and, indeed, “78x … “. No product code or description behind the ‘78x’. I asked him what that 78 referred to, and I understood him saying “oh nothing”. That was kind of wrong.

Anyway, those 78 planks were high-quality special wood. Those 78 planks had a total value of EUR 484. That’s USD 651. And this man came back into the shop. Not to complain about being overcharged, but because he could not live with the fact of “robbing” us of EUR 484. His morals and values dictated him to go back, and set the record straight. Even if it cost him EUR 484.

It made me all warm and fuzzy inside. Like I have said so many times before, it are the little things that make me want to live here in East Bumblefcuk.

I do became the laughing stock for the rest of the day, of course. But, I don’t care, since my faith in mankind has been restored. That, or the big bad world just hasn’t reached East Bumblefcuk yet.