Newspapers and loose change....

Always use loose change or small bills when buying newspapers.

This story didn't happen to me personally, but to my officemate's brother-in-law. This officemate of mine told the story with such aplomb and bravado that I couldn't help myself from laughing my head off. Yes, it was really than funny. Well, at least when he told it. :-)

The tale goes something like this: My officemate's brother-in-law was in some province waiting for a bus ride home. Getting kinda bored with the rather long wait, he decided to buy a newspaper to while away the time.

He bought a newspaper from a nearby vendor, but failing to have any loose change, he paid with a whole P500.00 peso bill. The vendor, not having change for a bill of that size, went off somewhere on the pretext of having the note broken down into smaller bills.

Then one bus passes by, and then another. And the vendor was still nowhere to be found. It's at this point that it finally dawns on my officemate's brother-in-law. He had just been bamboozled. The vendor in all likelihood had no intention of returning. With P500 almost equivalent to the profit margin for selling newspapers for a day, perhaps even higher, he could have actually taken the day off. :-)

So what did our hapless protagonist do? Not wanting to be on the losing end, he did what he thought to be the best way to get back at the vendor: he took the tall stack of newspapers the vendor left behind, and brought it with him on the next bus that stopped. He felt that he already paid for it, so what the hell? :-)

According to my officemate, his brother-in-law then proceeded to sell the newspapers himself to the other passengers, in an attempt to recoup some of his investment. He wasn't able to sell all the copies though, which he brought home to his wife, who was puzzled beyond belief why his husband was carrying a huge stack of newspapers, even carrying it with more care than his other belongings. Hey, can you blame him? It was worth P500. :-)

Once home, he then proceeded to give a copy of the same newspaper to each and every member of his household. :-)

Well, the story could have been exaggerated a bit by my officemate, but he swears it really happened. It probably really did.

If you were in his brother-in-law's shoes, what would have you done? :-)

The moral of the story? Don't buy newspapers using large bills, or you may find yourself carrying a huge stack of newspapers home as well. :-)

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