Setting The Universe Right...

...sort of.

A few posts back, I talked about not being charged for a $30.00 item of clothing.  I never did do anything about it.  One commenter suggested phoning the store and asking what I should do and I liked that idea because of the anonymity involved.  If they said yes I had to come back in and pay for it, I could still choose not to do so.  Anyways, it got forgotten about and I don't feel horribly guilty about it.  That being said, last night I had the opportunity to sort of make up for that incident.  Here's what went down...

I was in line at Stupidstore with both kidlings.  As I was bagging my groceries, there was a young, non-Caucasian guy in line behind me.  To say he was very drunk is almost an understatement.  I was trying to hear the conversation between he and the cashier, but I could only make out bits and pieces.  Using my sleuthing skills, I figured out that he was asking the cashier (an acquaintance of some sort) if she had money on her so he could buy both of his items.  He had a 2L of pop and a bag of chips.  He handed her a fistful of change, she counted it up and told him he only had enough for the pop.  I asked the cashier how much the chips were and handed her a toonie.  The young guy was so drunk, it took him more than a few moments to figure out what had just happened.

When he finally realized I had paid for him, he stumbled towards me and wanted to shake my hand.  That was when I saw the blood all over his shirt - not so much with the shaking of hands occurred.  He was surprised and grateful and wanted to help bag my groceries.  I told him I don't even let my husband pack the bags because I like them done a certain way.  He kept asking why I would do something like that.  I told him it was because people have helped me out before (not when I was drunk and needing munchies, but in other ways) and I was just paying it forward and that he should help someone out when they need it.  He told me I was special and different to which I replied, "My psychiatrist tells me the same thing".  The couple behind the young man laughed :)

After the young man left, I finished bagging up my groceries and the realization hit me that I was about to go out into a dark parking lot, with two small children (it was 9:00pm at night) and that this guy might want to continue talking.  I tried to think of a way to stall without being too obvious.  It was then that I noticed the jar of paprika still in my cart.  I glanced back at the cashier, but the couple behind me had a butt load of items and I didn't want to wait that long to pay for the item.  Instead, I went to customer service and paid for the paprika at that till.

To sum up...I could have walked out of the store without paying for an item and I wouldn't have been caught but instead I chose to pay for the item.  Granted I only did it to buy myself some time in order to avoid a run-in with the drunk guy, but still...that has to win me back some karma points, doesn't it?