Crisp

Guilt

Tue Aug 16th 03:09:09 2005

I've been having a great time in Australia since I last updated, and wont bother to go into detail because it'd become an essay and bore you all anyway. Safe to say in the last 2 months or so I've worked hard, played hard, and ran over a lot fo Australian wildlife.

Anyway, I thought I'd update with a quick one. Today I did the most dishonest thing I have ever done by far, and now feel pretty guilty (albeit with a heavy wallet :) I drove to a petrol station to get some money from the ATM. When I got there, this guy came up to me and said "I'd watch out for that machine mate, I just tried to take $500 out of there and it only gave me $250." So I told him I'd try anyway, and proceeded to withdraw $50. It processed the transaction, and then dropped out $300 into the tray. The guy was still standing there, and I realised that the extra $250 was his. So, in a split second desision, I looked up and said "well, it worked for me, look it gave me the $300 I asked for." We then decided the machine must have made an error on his transaction and that the best bet would be to call the ATM company that this particular cash point belonged to. So, I immediatly went and bought some cigarettes (with his money...) and he followed me to the cashier to ask about the problem. The cashier told him that the machine sometimes gets the cash stuck and that he'd check it. He went to check for the usual problem, and of course no money was there (it was in my wallet). In what was possibly the last chance to fein a mistake and do the right thing, I walked up the guy, and said "I'm sure if you phone the people they'll be able to sort it out, bad luck mate." To which, he accepted his bad luck and thanked me, as I walked out of the garage and tried my best not to burn out of the carpark like a bank robber trying to get away. I'm $250 up, have bought some weed, a crate of beer and paid my rent. Still have some left over, too. Do I feel guilty? Yes. That was most uncharacteristic of me. Would I do it again? Probably...

Current Location:
England

Robbed from Snags ;)