Jasper wasted a good red bean bun by spreading it all over the dinning table on Sunday morning, so I punished him by not giving him anything to eat for lunch. Later that day I took Jasper and our maid to Délifrance in Tuen Mun Town Centre for afternoon tea and snacks. You can’t stuff yourself there, the food is relatively healthy and tastes okay. Perfect for a light meal.
We ordered two set meals with ice lemon tea. I paid the cashier a HK$500 note. I didn’t check the change and disposed of the receipt.
When we got home I noticed that I only had 3 HK$100 notes in it. So I called Délifrance and asked to speak to the manager, and was speaking to a Mr Sun in no time.
I explained to Mr Sun what had happened, told him that I wasn’t expecting to get my money back, but that this was something they should improve upon: the auto cashier machines these days calculate changes, so there really was no excuse for getting it wrong.
Mr Sun asked for my name and telephone number, and said he would check the cashier and get back to me. I told him that that this would not be necessary.
An hour later Mr Sun called. He asked me to go to his restaurant again so he could give me the HK$100. He revealed that there was an excess of less than HK$100 in the cashier machine. I told him that this didn’t seem right, but if he insisted I would be happy to accept their coupons. He said it would be easier for him to give me HK$100 in cash, as a gesture of gratitude for me to raise the matter to his attention.
I got there in the evening, had a little chat w/ Mr Sun, and got my HK$100 in a Délifrance paper bag.
While I was thinking about this, I realize that Mr Sun is merely doing the right thing. But why was I so excited about it? It certainly wasn’t the HK$100. Maybe these days people just don’t do the right thing and try to get away whenever with whatever they could, so Doing the Right Thing(TM) has become a rare and precious virtue?