What I Gave For My Birthday

Twice I had to argue with people today to give them money.

10 NIS: Lunch (birthday treat while waiting for my car to be fixed)

After a bit of argument about the price of the items on the bill (some too high and some too low), I handed them 40 NIS for my 39 NIS bill and received 11 NIS back. I kept my hand extended for quite some time and had to call the guy back twice to tell him something was wrong. He didn't understand either time. He had to call the manager before the problem was finally understood.

13 NIS: Groceries

While checking out, neither the person in front of me nor the cashier knew what the date was. I did, since it was my birthday, so I told them. They wished me a happy birthday.

When finished, I checked my receipt as I always do, and noticed that they had rung me up 13 NIS short because they used the wrong code for something. I told the cashier, who told me that the thing rang up wasn't on sale anymore, which had nothing to do with my complaint.

So we went to the manager and I eventually got them to realize that I still owed them money. "And it's his birthday, too," said the cashier to the manager. They eventually charged me the extra money and gave me two wineglasses "as a birthday gift".

The cashier asked me why I bothered. I told her that it's not my money; I don't like to take another person's money and walk away with it. She didn't understand. "Nobody would lose any money if you just left," she said.

Is there a moral payback for this, somewhere? It would be nice to think so. Maybe I'm just "a friar". People don't seem to go out of their way to give my money back when they take more than they're owed.

Yehuda