Top Shelf Confusion

My mom and I are both very short: she’s about 5’2″ and I’m 5’0″. We go to a local retail chain, and she is looking for tampons in a specific brand. The only one we can find in that brand is on the very top shelf, where neither of us can reach, and the shelf is too unstable to climb. We turn to the nearby employee for help.

Employee: “Can I help you two?”

Mom: “Hi. Can you grab a ladder or a taller employee to reach those tampons for us?”

Employee: “Certainly, just wait right here and I will be back in a few minutes.”

A few moments after the employee left, I noticed that there was the exact thing my mom needed, well within reach and hidden behind a different box of tampons. Now, the smart thing to do would be to take the tampons and apologize to the poor employee — who was just as short as we were — for wasting their time.

I did not do the smart thing.

I took the box and tossed it up on the top shelf. To the poor employee whose time I wasted, I am so sorry for being that kind of person. You were very helpful and lovely.