I think they want me to feel bad about myself.

Today, a boy of about 12 or 13 brought 5 or 6 necklaces up to the counter. I thought for sure this would be one of those times when I told him the total price and he would put 3 of them back because he did not have enough money. [Children tend to underestimate by a lot. I understand the ones who don't figure that tax is so much but there are ones who have $10 and come up with almost $20 worth of merchandise. Then they put back something that costs $2 and ask "What's the total now?"] No, this was not one of those times. His total was $31 something. He opens his velcro wallet and pulls out a $50 bill.

This reminded me of the time a 10 year old child bought Skittles for $2.25 (before the price went up again). He paid me with a crumpled $50.

OK, I understand that maybe your children have birthday money or have saved up money from chores or something (by the way, I was never paid for chores) but why would you allow them to bring it all to the zoo. Yes, it's their money and they can do what they want with their money. But they are your child and live in your house so you can tell them not to bring $100 to the zoo. I don't trust children. I wouldn't want them to loose their hard earned (?) money at the zoo. Which brings me to the next story.

A few years ago, I was working in the shop with Trini one day. It was a slow day and we were putting new merchandise out. Trini went back to the stock room to grab another box to put out. When she came back out she noticed that someone had dropped money in front of the counter. She picked it up and had such a shocked look on her face. She showed me that it was a $20 and a $50. We didn't know what to do. Usually if we find money, it's a few cents and we throw it in the register. So what if we're a few cents over at the end of the day because we found a dime on the floor or something, but $70 over would not be acceptable. Do we call security and have them take it to lost and found? We really didn't know what to do. So we stood behind the register whispering about all this money and what we should do. There probably were only a few people in the shop and shortly after we found the money, a 12 year old girl and her mother came up to pay. The girl reached into her pocket and noticed her money was missing. She was about to start panicing. She was missing a $5o and a $20. We had never said how much it was out loud so we knew she was telling the truth. Her mom was shocked that she had brought that much and was just keeping it in her pocket. Her mom then held on to the rest of the money.

Here's a more recent story along the same lines. Last week, a woman noticed $20 on the floor in front of the counter. She gave it to us and said, "If I lost $20, I would want someone to turn it in in case I came back looking for it." A good samaritan, we thought. Honestly, if I found it, I may have just kept it. But then this woman continued with, "But if they don't come back, I'll take it. I'll leave my name and number and I can come back for it." Oh, you're so funny. She repeated herself. I stared at her. MJ gave her a piece of paper to write her name and number down. She said she would come back sometime next week to pick it up. It's all right, because she's her all the time anyway. I kept straring. She left. MJ handed me the post-it with her name. She was very detailed. She wrote her name, phone number, the date and "found $20" on the slip of paper. I put the $20 in the bottom of the cash drawer away from our money. I waited a bit and no one came back. I called security. They came to pick it up and I threw out her post-it. Yeah, that's not how this works, Lady. If you wanted to keep it, you shouldn't have been honest.