So I'm running out of reading materiel and decide to head
on over to a used book store of which I'd heard good report. First time I'd been there. The place is a zoo at 2PM on a Thursday. Lots of college girls in summer clothes, so I didn't mind the crowded conditions.

After spending considerable time browsing shelves and clientele, I take my four purchases to the front. Seeing a line, I naturally fall into it, as is the custom in the English-speaking world. Upon arriving at the counter, the guy takes my books and hands me a number. Seeing my confused look, he says "wait over there until your number shows up on the screen, and then come back here." What an annoying way to do business, I thought. Just wanted to buy some books. But I did as instructed.

Eventually the number came up. I presented my ticket at the counter, and dude says "we can give you $8 in store credit, or $3.50 in cash." Hiding my surprise with a thoughtful expression, I replied "I'll take the store credit."

Best part was, two of the books had multiple copies on the shelves, so I just went back and bought those with my store credit. This doesn't qualify for a DP post because I have no questions about it. No moral conundra. A beautiful, elegant, if somewhat petty scam.

Once you've established what you are, then why should the trivial matter of price get in your way.

I hear you can go into Walmart, buy a computer, take it home and strip everything out of the tower, and then re-box and return it!

Isn't that elegant? And the margins are much better than your caper.

Stripping computer components. That involves a third party. And effort. And you might cut yourself or something. Here you're just taking books off the shelves and then selling them at the counter. All the while enjoying a pleasant and decorative afternoon.

You buy the computer, take it out to your car, and take your receipt back inside the store. You haul another off the shelf, take it to customer service, and return it.

Just taking a little something off the shelves and "returning" it at the counter.

The margins - much better. The decorations (at Walmart?) probably not so much.

To me, it's worse than stealing from a church.

Clearly, this book store is getting ripped off by their own stupidity in not having a security device planted in between the buy counter and the sell counter. And just as clearly they will get wise to this scam. It would be a shame to see Urquhart be arrested for petty larceny.

It does speak to your depraved character that you would publicly crow about an $8 windfall--from a used bookstore, no less. Most of us would have filed this away in the more shamed sectors of our subconscious memory.

You're a Republican, aren't you?

That's tree-fitty, for South Park fans. Cash value. And it's not as if I planned it, or if anyone will get in trouble. Their system was just so damned lame. As an auditor, I couldn't resist pointing out the flaws. Two solutions: Proper signage, to label the check-out counter and the selling counter, and checking to see if the books they're buying are still in inventory. These books all had bar-code stickers.

I was waiting next to a (phenomenally attractive) girl, who eventually told me that this was the selling counter. We had a good laugh ("I think I may have just spotted the flaw in this system"), and then our numbers came up simultaneously. She was at the register next to me when I said "I'll take the store credit." She gave a little start, out of the corner of my eye.

Must've thought I wouldn't follow through.

God, you people are lame.

And it's just too intriguing not to follow to the end. Are these guys really going to pay me for taking books off of their shelves and presenting them at the counter? Irresistible, to one of my curious mind.

if the same employee had given you back $8 more in change than was owed you, you probably would have kept it, also.

Please don't compound this heinous crime by failing to declare the windfall profit on your next income tax report.

You know...render unto Caesar and all that stuff.

Jack

But I could easily see a Democrat doing the same,, 'cept for the bragging part.

"Is it cos I is black?"