True, he might be exaggerating (though perhaps this was what motivated the cafeteria chain to switch check systems). Today, you pay as you exit the line with your tray of food and there’s very little room for cheating.
He's also lying to some degree in the retelling.
For example, if he told that story exactly as he told it to Playboy, to Ed Stash and his associates, about how he sucked up and got them to talk to him, do you think they might have had a little different take on it?
Different enough to win Alinsky a new position with the Mob .... head down in a barrel of wet cement, maybe?