"Help Desk, " I heard.
"You’re probably going to think I’m crazy," I said. I explained the situation to him.
"Let me make sure I understood you," said the man. "You requested $160."
"Yes"
"And you got $180."
"Yes."
"So you got 20 bucks extra."
"Yes."
I must give him credit for not sounding completely incredulous as he clarified the situation. The poor guy didn’t quite know what to do. I didn’t have the cash machine receipt with me in the meeting room and I had forgotten to check the bank records online to make sure of the withdrawal amount on record. I gave him my name and number and told him I’d call back when I’d gotten the rest of the information.
He did thank me for my honesty and told me, "This is the way that you receive blessings." To be honest, I had been hoping he’d just say I could keep the $20. But blessings are good, too.
Off I went and checked my bank records online: there it was, a withdrawal for $161.20, so no problems there. I got the receipt out from my wallet.
When I called back, Didier had left the office, but Mark took my call and started putting my reference number into his computer.
"You’re going to think I’m weird," I said.
"Am I? Well, I’m ready to be entertained!" he said cheerfully. "Oh yes, you’re the honest person who called in that everyone’s been talking about in the office today!" Isn’t it heart-warming to know you can provide a good story for a whole office full of people you don’t know? Hmm, I guess it’s not so different from blogging.
Mark told me that the cash machine is operated by Wal-Mart so I should call their cash office, and he gave me the number to call, if I should decide to do so.
Well, I’d gone this far, so why stop now? The woman in the Wal-Mart cash office sounded a bit guarded at first. These poor people probably only ever deal with irate customers who’ve been short-changed at the machines. When I explained what had happened, she said, "Oh, but the machines all balanced out in the last few days." Which probably means that the poor guy who used the machine before me got short-changed $20 and didn’t notice it. Since it’s been a few days and nobody has gone to the cash office claiming to be short $20,the woman told me I could just keep it.
Woo hoo! Honesty does pay!
I wonder if this means I don’t get any blessings?
