My truck has started making a weird noise. Since my dad used to be a mechanic, I ask him about it, but he can’t hear it and insists that I’m imagining it. A few weeks later, the noise is worse, and the truck has started acting weird when I use the brakes. If I just barely touch the brake pedal, the truck reacts as if I’ve slammed on the brakes, and the brakes also let go at unexpected times.

When I try to tell my dad about it, he actually makes fun of me. He says there’s absolutely nothing wrong with my truck and kind of bullies me for not wanting to drive it. I tell him that if he’s that sure, he can drive it. He seems to think it’s hilarious, but he does agree and we swap keys.

The next morning while I am at work, I get a text from dad.

“Don’t drive your truck anywhere.”

It isn’t until I get home that I finally get an explanation. He tried to drive my truck as we agreed. He got halfway out of the driveway, only to realize that he’d left one of the brakes behind!

It had rusted completely in half, but since he’d only been pretending to look at them he didn’t think there could be any problem… until one of them fell off completely.

Dad wonders why I don’t trust him anymore.

(I’ve just checked out a couple who used part food stamps and part $50 cash to pay. I give them their change — about $2 — and they leave. I’m ringing out the two older women who were behind them when the woman from the couple walks back up.)

Woman: “I dropped a $50. Did anyone find it?”

(The older ladies and I both look around and see nothing, and we all tell her we didn’t see a thing.)

Woman: “Well, can I see the cameras to see if anyone took it?”

Me: “No. You are going to have to call the police and file a report, and they will watch the cameras.”

(The woman suddenly looks deflated, and I can instantly tell she thought I would sputter under pressure and maybe just hand her $50. She walks away and goes to another cashier within earshot of us, changing her story to, “The cashier never gave me my $50 in change.” The other cashier also tells her to call the police. She leaves again, defeated. I look at the two older ladies and shake my head.)

One Of The Older Ladies: “That was the most pathetic attempt at a scam I’ve ever seen.”

(I work the night shift at a Midwest-exclusive gas station chain. Tonight one of the newer summer employees, a kid recently graduated from high school, is working until midnight. I’m having him watch the front counter to get more register experience. I notice a holdup in the line, stop the cleaning I’m doing, and walk over. One of the more “interesting” regulars is there.)

Coworker: “…so you want the [Cigarette Brand] light 99s?”

Regular: “Yes. The white box.”

Coworker: “So, these?” *holds up the cigarette box*

Regular: “No! Not the blue ones! The white ones?”

Me: *stepping behind the counter* “What’s up?”

Coworker: “She’s asking for the [Cigarette Brand] Light 99’s… I thought it was this brand, but maybe I was wrong?”

Me: “Funny, we only carry the 99s in two different kinds.” *turns to Regular* “You said [Cigarette Brand] Light 99s?

Regular: “Yes, I don’t see what’s so hard about that!”

(I head over to the cigarette holders, pick up a different box of the same kind my coworker is holding, and show it to the regular.)

Me: “Is this it?”

Regular: “Yes! Finally.”

Me: *to my baffled and slightly angry coworker* “Ring up the rest of these customers. I’ll take it from here.”

(I ring up the regular, and we get through the line of people within a couple of minutes. Afterward, my coworker turns to me.)

Coworker: “I had the right one! It was literally the same one you gave her!”

Me: “Yeah, I know. Welcome to retail.”

(I work in concessions at a movie theater. I’m serving a customer at the beginning of the week on a slow day. She’s interested in some popcorn, but the prices are too high for her to consider buying some. It’s slow, and I’m feeling generous, so I give her some popcorn in a small bag at no cost. Touched by this gesture, she offers to pay me for the popcorn. The money is tempting, but I refuse, since I wanted to do something nice for her. I don’t necessarily want to be paid for trying to be nice. She won’t take no for an answer, though, so I get an idea.)

Me: “Pay it forward; do something nice for someone else.”

(She agrees and leaves the cinema. A few days later, I’m working concessions again when a teenage girl comes to order food, and she has her grandma with her. Turns out it’s the same lady from before! She recognizes me, although I don’t remember her. She turns to her grandchild, and says:)

Customer: “I have to tell you a story. This lady right here gave me some popcorn for free, and refused to take any money for it. Instead, she told me to pay it forward. I went and cried in my car afterward, and I’ve been telling my friends for a couple of days. I just wanted to say thank you for that.”

(I am overcome. I honestly didn’t think it would make all that much of a difference.)

Me: “Thank you, ma’am. I’m actually leaving for an internship in a few days, so I’m glad you told me this, and that I got a chance to hear how much it meant to you.”

Customer: “Oh, you’re leaving for an internship? In that case, take this, and have a good time!”

(She placed something in my hand, and I looked down to see a $20 bill! I opened my mouth to protest, but she was already gone. Wherever you are, thank you, ma’am!)

This story happened to a friend of mine. Let’s call him Dave. We like to think of it as the moment he went from small-time to big-shot.

Dave is a new systems administrator for this company but has been working in IT for close to 15 years at this point. The last admin retired with little warning, so Dave was hired with the understanding that he would be getting no training and would have to figure out the system more or less by himself. One of the earliest projects Dave is given is creating a proposal for the annual IT budget. He takes an inventory, crunches some numbers, and submits a budget of $495,000.

A few hours later, one of the VPs drops by and asks him to recalculate his budget. Dave gets an anxious vibe from the guy, so he doesn’t ask too many questions and goes back to the drawing board. Figuring there must be some financial issues he is unaware of, he tries to find places where he can save some money and skimp on costs, finally resubmitting a proposal for $460,000.

The next day, Dave is called into a meeting with the CEO, the head of accounting, and two senior VPs. They’re concerned about his budget and ask him to review it with them and explain the numbers. My friend obliges. He points out the cost of equipment currently in production, expansion based on the company’s estimates for growth, and the standard wear-and-tear replacement cycle for the servers, plus padding of ~15% for unforeseen costs. They ask why he was using that inventory list and not the one they provided, and he responds that he never received an inventory list and had to make this one from scratch. Apparently, someone had forgotten to give it to him.

The execs talk among themselves for a bit, then decide they want to double-check the inventory. Dave had previously called the server centers and satellite locations to get inventory counts, but now they decide to check each location personally. Over the course of two days, Dave ferries one of the VPs from location to location, checking every item on the list. He actually finds that several items have been depreciated due to age and failure, so his list is even shorter than he thought. After all this checking and making sure nothing needs replacing and a final bit of calculation, he submits a final budget closer to $380,000.

By now, the execs are mad. They tersely thank Dave, and he doesn’t hear from them all weekend. By this point, he is extremely nervous that he has done something wrong and he is going to lose his job, and picking up a job like this isn’t exactly easy. When he gets in on Monday, he’s called into the CEO’s office yet again.

It turns out the previous administrator had been putting in budgets in excess of $700,000 for the past four years, with the last before his retirement just scraping over $1,000,000. They show Dave the inventory sheets and math the old admin had submitted and they showed an artificially bloated system that didn’t exist — literally hundreds of servers that the company simply didn’t own. Turns out the guy was making the purchases, showing the receipts to accounting, then selling them to friends and family for a fraction of the price and pocketing the profit, which is how he was able to retire at 40, and why he insisted his inventory sheet be given to his replacement. He had effectively embezzled nearly two million dollars that they could prove, and an unknown amount that they could not.

Regardless, they got the court to freeze the guy’s funds, got a warrant for his arrest, and put him in prison where he belongs. They weren’t able to recover most of their money since he didn’t keep records of who he sold to, but the reduced IT budget at least helped them absorb the blow.

And that’s how one misplaced inventory sheet made Dave into a big-shot at his company.