What Are You Fishing For?

I used to work at a mom-and-pop store that sold clothes, farm supplies, animals, and sporting goods. Since we sold sporting goods, we also sold bait fish. Fishermen would frequently stop by our store to buy them to fish with and they were sold by the dozen. Usually, when I scooped bait, I would give a few extra fish to my customers.

I had a lady come in to purchase bait fish, so just as I normally did, I scooped a net full of fish and started dumping them in the bag, counting them individually, and added a few extra to the bag. The lady watched me do this.

Lady: “You didn’t give me the correct amount!”

Me: “Ma’am, not only did I give you the dozen you paid for, but I gave you a few extra.”

I had literally just counted them, and I had done this for long enough that I was really good at eyeing when it was over a dozen. This lady just kept insisting that I hadn’t given her enough.

Me: “Okay, let’s count together just to be sure.”

I dumped all the fish from the bag back into the net, and we started counting together, very slowly, “One… two… three… four…” and so on. We got to twelve, and it was very clear that there were several extra fish still in the net. I looked up at her.

Me: “Ohhh, you were right. I didn’t give you the right amount.”

I then proceeded to dump the remaining fish back into the tank right in front of her and give her exactly the amount she had paid for.

She just looked bewildered when I handed the fish back to her, and she left.

I did start applying this philosophy to the customers who bought crickets.