Honesty pays

A month or so back I was doing some shopping and had the family in tow. We had been to a clothing store and I purchased 4 tops and asked for gift receipts for each of them, as they were to be gifts ;o)

The nice young man rang up my items and printed my gift receipts and we were on our way. Jeremiah and the kids were already out the door before I could even pay for the stuff. lol!!

Anyway - I was checking my receipt as I was walking out and realized I only had 3 gift receipts. So, I started checking the main receipt closer and realized I had not been charged for one of the tops. I immediately feel like a thief. I'm standing outside of a store with merchandise in my bag that I didn't purchase and all eyes are on me. I'm not posting this to toot my own horn here - but I, of course, turned around (even though I was tired and ready to go home) and went back into the store to the customer service desk. I waited in line until it was FINALLY my turn and explained to the nice young lady that it appeared I had not been charged for one of my items. She looked at me like I was crazy and asked me to repeat what I had said - so I did. Still puzzled, she looked through my items, compared them to the receipt, and discovered I was, in fact, correct.

She rang up the missing item and gave me my total and then said "STOP! I'm going to give you a 10% discount for being honest." I told her that was not necessary and her response was, "Yes, it is - I can't even believe you came back in here."

Are people really that shocked by honesty these days?