The overpayment19
The owner of an Army and Navy store in Jamaica likes me very much. The other day when I was in the store I asked him, “Do you have a medium jacket?”He said, “Medium? For whom?”
I said, “For me!”
He said, “Extra large, extra large!”
I said, “Extra large for whom?”
He said, “Extra large for me.”
I said, “You are the owner. Why do I have to get one for you?”
He said, “Can you not buy one for your old age?”
I said, “I am already old.”
Then he looked around and found a medium. The jacket cost forty-six dollars, but he reduced the price to forty, and said he wouldn’t charge me tax. I gave him the money and smiled, and then went out of the door. Suddenly he started shouting and shouting.
I thought, “What, have I not given him enough money?” So I turned around.
He said, “Man, you have given me fifty dollars!”
I had counted it, but I hadn’t noticed that two ten dollar bills were stuck together. If he himself had trusted me and not counted it again, then he would not have known that I had given him too much. But for him to call me back was really something!
LS 62. 12 May 1983↩
