Setting Back But Moving Forward

(I work in a watch repair shop and one of the services we perform is re-setting a customer’s watch when the time changes, which we do for free. Some digital watches are difficult to set the time on. An older man with an Irish accent comes up to my counter.)

Customer: “Pardon me, could you set my watch for me? I can’t figure out how to set it back an hour.”

Me: *smiling* “No problem. These things can be pretty tricky to set.”

(I proceed to set his digital watch to the correct time in about a minute and hand it back to him.)

Me: “Here you go, sir.”

Customer: “You did that fast! What do I owe you?”

Me: “Oh, there’s no charge for that.”

Customer: “Really? No, I can’t go away without giving you something.”

(He proceeds to pull a $5 bill out of his wallet and hand it to me.)

Me: “Really, sir, you don’t have to do that, and there’s no charge. It was my pleasure.”

Customer: “Well, you’ve been so nice and did that so fast, stop by the pub on your way home and have yourself a drink! You deserve it!”

(He waves as he walks away. And yes, I did have that drink!)