The Pony Is My Conscience

Well. Apparently Mrs. HM is a lowlife scumbag these days. Through a faux-pas not of her making, and unbeknownst to her in the moment. So kind of The Pony to point it out...

We were checking out at Country Mart on Thursday. The Pony always goes first, paying and putting bagged items back in the cart while I set mine on the conveyor. 

I didn't have much. A pair of fake CROCS that cost $8.98. A box of microwave popcorn, some cherry tomatoes, a jar of green olives, a can of black olives, a bottle of Ken's Blue Cheese Salad Dressing, and four 6-packs of Farmer H's Diet Mountain Dew. Which was on sale, 2-for-$9.00. Three of the 6-packs were down in the cart, with one perched on the side of the cart, for easy scanning.

The cashier was a young man, maybe 21. He rang up wine for The Pony, so at least he was legal age to do that, though he looked younger. He offered The Pony a receipt (refused), and turned to greet me.

"I have four of the sodas."

"Okay." Cashier Boy used the gun to scan the barcode of the perched 6-pack. I heard it. Beep, beep, beep, beep. Then he scanned my other items by dragging them over the thingy, and bagged them. I took my receipt, The Pony commenting to Cashier Boy how I was one of those people who still balanced their checkbook.

"I just did that this morning! That's what old people do!"

I wheeled the cart out of the way while stuffing the receipt in my pocket. Cashier Boy was greeting the next customer as The Pony and I walked past the two lottery machines, which we had already partaken of as we came in.

"Let me see your receipt."

"Okay. But I need it to write in my checkbook, so don't lose it."

We walked on. Almost to the door.

"Uh huh. Just as I thought. You only paid for three sodas."

"WHAT? I heard the scanner! It beeped four times!"

"I heard it too. It DID beep four times. But you only paid for three."

"Oh, no! That means I got charged full price. Because they're 2-for-$9.00. And they always have that sign with 'OR $5.69 EACH.'"

"No. They each rang up as $4.50."

"Let me see!"

Indeed, that was on the receipt. 3 @ 2/9.00. 13.50 as their total.

"Well. It's too late now. He's ringing up other people. There's a line. If I had heard it, or if you had told me while we were standing there, I would have paid for the other one. But now I'm not going back. He won't be in any trouble. Nobody will know. It's not like a gas drive-off, or the lottery count coming up wrong."

The Pony shook his head in disappointment. I agree that I SHOULD have gone back. I have done that so many times, and rescued so many clerks from their lottery errors. This was too much inconvenience. I know it's wrong. But overall, I feel like I'm still in the plus column for doing the right thing...

The Pony begs to differ.