In a shopping mall near my home, I was trying to get a bill paid. I was standing in front of the cashier at the customer service centre of the company that sent me the bill, which was due this day.
"That would be $30, please," said the clerk.
"Here you go." I replied.
"I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept cash. We only accept credit cards or cheques."
I searched through my wallet and realized that I had left my credit card at home. So I said to the clerk "I'll be right back." and tried to find a branch of his bank.
Unfortunately for me, the bank that I do business with did not have a branch in the mall I was in and the closest branch of my bank was 2 km away, and there were no buses running between the two places. So I ran to a branch of another bank to get the bill paid.
Once I arrived at the branch, a display showed that the waiting time for a teller is 30 minutes. So I decided to go to a branch of my bank. It's only 2 km away, after all, and I can walk that distance in less than 30 minutes, I thought to myself. When I arrived at the branch, I looked inside and realized that the bank was being robbed. I turned around and tried to leave. Just as I took a step back, the police arrived and made the arrests. A police officer asked me to stay and answer some questions. I said to him "I don't know anything. I arrived only seconds before you did."
I thought that the interview is over, but the officer continued to ask me questions and I continued to say that I know nothing. This was repeated many times until his colleague asked me to go to the police station. I was interrogated and I lost track of time. After realizing that I didn't know much about the robbery. The police let me go.
I glanced at my watch and realized that the banks would close soon. So I ran back to my branch. Unfortunately, it was closed for police investigation and the ATM's there were shut down. Thus I ran back to the mall where I started.
After I arrived at the mall, I found that the queues for tellers were longer than when I left the mall. So I decided to use an ATM in one of the banks at the mall and the machine charged me more for using a bank card that was not issued by this bank.
Feeling tried and hungry, I walked towards the food court to get something to eat. I congratulated myself for my perfect timing when I realized that the queues at every outlet could not be counted with fingers alone.
I picked a food outlet and joined the queue. I waited in line and got to 3rd in line. A man and a woman were in front of me and the woman at the front of the line had just finished her order.
"Wait, I'll get my debit card."
She took her debit card from her purse and swiped it through the card reader. Dial tones could be heard. After a minute, there was no response except dial tones. So the worker asked her to swipe the card again, but she said that "wait, it is dialling." After another minute, the machine spewed out a receipt saying that the transaction had failed. She swiped her card again. This time it worked, after another couple of minutes. She took her receipt and left.
The next person in line, the man in front of me (as there was only one cashier), made his order.
"It comes to $7.48," the cashier said.
The man put $7 on the counter and said to the cashier "Wait, I have 48 cents."
He then promptly opened his wallet, and brought out 1 cent pieces in his wallet, one by one.
"1...2...3" he counted out loud.
"21...22... Wait, where was I?"
"22." the cashier said.
"No, I'm sure it is not 22. Wait, let me start again. 1...2...3..."
He lost count again and the cashier asked him "don't you have two 25 cent coins or a dollar coin?"
The man replied "No, I'm sure I have 48 cents. Let me count again."
After I lost count of how many times he had lost count, he pushed 48 1 cent coins towards the cashier, and the cashier put the coins into the cash drawer 5 or 6 at a time.
Finally, I said to myself. I made my order and the payment for it. I received the change from the cashier, found a place to sit and devoured the food.
On my way home, "how can people come up with these stupid ways of paying for goods and services?" was the only thing in my mind.
(Note: as far as I know, one can use up to 50 1 cent coins in a single payment in Canada or the US, so the above situation is legal, unfortunately.)