Be The Change (Giver) You Want To See In The World

(I am serving an elderly man at the checkouts — nothing unusual, as the local area has both sheltered housing and lots of bungalows.)

Me: “All right, your total is [amount].”

(Man #1 gives me change from his coin purse; I count it up.)

Me: “Sorry, sir, this is a pound short.”

(Man #1 opens his coin purse again, but it’s mostly coppers. If it has been less than 50 pence I could have used coupons, but as it is, there’s not much I can do. The next man in line catches my eye and puts a pound coin on the conveyer belt. I pick it up and add it to the others.)

Me: “Oh! Sorry, sir, one of the coins was hiding! That’s [amount].”

(Man #1 brightens up.)

Man #1: “That’s fine, lassie; happens to all of us.”

Me: “Enjoy your day!”

(Man #2 steps forward.)

Me: “Thank you.”

Man #2: “It’s fine; hopefully someone would help my dad if he was a bit short.”

(I ended up using a 50p coupon for Man #2, based on a tiny dent on a cereal box. Not really supposed to for such tiny, near non-existent damage, but I was really glad to that man, both for helping the elderly gentleman and for doing so in a way that let him keep his pride!)