A few years back, my wife and I were traveling and stopped at a motel in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. I left my wife in the motel room and went to fill the gas tank. Forgot my wallet and didn’t even think about it until the gas tank was full. I was a couple of miles from the motel and figured I’d have to walk back to get my wallet but the attendant told me to just drive back, get it and then come and pay for my gas, no collateral, just my word. Boy, did I ever stiff that guy!
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Just kidding, I went back and paid for my gas.
One its a small town of friendly people.
Second, he had you and your license plate on video.
She asked them to please keep the cart of bagged groceries, so that she could fetch the checkbook from home and come back to get them. The store manager suggested that she instead take the groceries home, put the cold things away, and then come back and give them a check. No ID was even asked for. Now it was a good neighborhood, but I was stunned at the level of trust.
Another time when in Naples, Italy, I and a friend went to dinner. When the bill came, we discovered that they did not take VISA. We only had enough cash to cover about 70% of the bill. We asked for the owner and explained our mistake, offering that one of us would stay, while the other retrieved more cash. The nice woman, looked over our bill and told us that the 70% we had would cover our bill. It was a nice and unexpected offer. Had I had the opportunity, I would have returned with the other 30% later, but ship movement prevented it.
That’s probably one of the differences between NYC and the midwest.
I’m in flyover country. I once left my wallet, not realizing it until I got to the checkout. The grocery store kept my cart w/the bags and said it was fine for me to go home and get my wallet.
I came back, got my stuff, and was very thankful (and impressed) that they didn’t make a big deal of it and didn’t try to embarrass me in public at the checkout.