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The morality dilemma
15 years ago
General
Today I went to McDonald's and got too much change back at the drive-thru. 20 cents. The guy thought the nickel was a quarter. This presented a quandary. Do I give him back the 20 cents, telling him that I gave him exact change? If I were Christian, I definitely would. Most Christians, I believe, would take it as a blessing from God(whether they believed it was okay to accept it or not). I've found that I'm more honest than most Christians I know. I do know of a Christian that would have given it back, but generally, I think the size of the company would make it seem less of a sin. I'm not afraid of an all-seeing deity, so I relied on guessing what the possible outcomes would be.
If I gave the 20 cents back: This would throw the cashier's timing off. He wouldn't expect such a thing. A confused cashier is a less-effective cashier. You do NOT want to throw off a cashier. I know this from experience, on both sides of the situation. In the end, I don't benefit, and other people's orders may get disrupted.
If I said nothing: I get to eat my sandwich sooner, everybody else gets their orders in the expected time, nobody notices anything. Cashier may have wondered why I had a confused look on my face, but most customers have that look anyway, and it was dark, so he probably didn't notice that either. Also, the drawer is $2.54 short instead of $2.34 short.
It took several seconds to decide what the best action would be(while I waited for my sandwich), but in the end, I couldn't find any benefit to handing back the dimes. Now, if I got $5 too much back(it's happened), yes, I definitely would give it back, even if it's against some of my personal rules. I only think of how something will affect ME, as I don't give a shit about other people(except for how they affect me), and there's no way accepting $5 too much at the drive thru would come back to me, but I also don't want to be the reason somebody got into trouble for the drawer being too short. I just don't want the guilt, and I don't like having money that's not mine. Then again, I might know them either now or in the future, so maybe there COULD be a way it could come back to me, but mostly, I don't want to be the raccoon responsible for a drawer shortage(even if it's totally their fault). Oh, and looking honest is good. They might be my manager later on. Giving back $5 looks good.
What it all comes down to, really, is if the amount of money is worth the action, and 20 cents simply isn't worth it.
Then again, I never alerted a certain cell phone company to a couple hundred dollars worth of credit to my account. That circumstance was different, anyway, as the call center is in India and they can't even understand a simple request. How would THAT affect me? Most likely something getting royally screwed up. No really, their customer service is that bad and they have royally screwed simpler stuff up(mom lost her phone number after a total of 7-10 hours on the phone with them on a simple request). I figure if I didn't get actual cash from this, and I'm really not using the extra credit for anything(I pay a monthly fee anyway), then a "hardly-used store credit" mistake isn't worth the problem. It's hardly cost them anything with how few minutes I use.
If I gave the 20 cents back: This would throw the cashier's timing off. He wouldn't expect such a thing. A confused cashier is a less-effective cashier. You do NOT want to throw off a cashier. I know this from experience, on both sides of the situation. In the end, I don't benefit, and other people's orders may get disrupted.
If I said nothing: I get to eat my sandwich sooner, everybody else gets their orders in the expected time, nobody notices anything. Cashier may have wondered why I had a confused look on my face, but most customers have that look anyway, and it was dark, so he probably didn't notice that either. Also, the drawer is $2.54 short instead of $2.34 short.
It took several seconds to decide what the best action would be(while I waited for my sandwich), but in the end, I couldn't find any benefit to handing back the dimes. Now, if I got $5 too much back(it's happened), yes, I definitely would give it back, even if it's against some of my personal rules. I only think of how something will affect ME, as I don't give a shit about other people(except for how they affect me), and there's no way accepting $5 too much at the drive thru would come back to me, but I also don't want to be the reason somebody got into trouble for the drawer being too short. I just don't want the guilt, and I don't like having money that's not mine. Then again, I might know them either now or in the future, so maybe there COULD be a way it could come back to me, but mostly, I don't want to be the raccoon responsible for a drawer shortage(even if it's totally their fault). Oh, and looking honest is good. They might be my manager later on. Giving back $5 looks good.
What it all comes down to, really, is if the amount of money is worth the action, and 20 cents simply isn't worth it.
Then again, I never alerted a certain cell phone company to a couple hundred dollars worth of credit to my account. That circumstance was different, anyway, as the call center is in India and they can't even understand a simple request. How would THAT affect me? Most likely something getting royally screwed up. No really, their customer service is that bad and they have royally screwed simpler stuff up(mom lost her phone number after a total of 7-10 hours on the phone with them on a simple request). I figure if I didn't get actual cash from this, and I'm really not using the extra credit for anything(I pay a monthly fee anyway), then a "hardly-used store credit" mistake isn't worth the problem. It's hardly cost them anything with how few minutes I use.
