multiple choice
Here’s an ethical question for you.
Suppose you were shopping for lawn care supplies at Lowe’s home improvement. You have a shopping cart full of weed whackers, gardening gloves, Round-up, a power washer, etc. You also push a brand new lawn mower through the check-out line. They scan everything, including the lawn mower, but - weirdly - the mower doesn’t show up on the receipt. You try to tell the cashier, “Excuse me, the mower didn’t scan” but she waves you through. You drive away with the goods in the back of your truck knowing you didn’t actually pay for the lawn mower. Suppose this happened to you, would you:
a.) Consider the lawn mower a gift from the universe because, hey, at least you tried to do the right thing by telling the check-out gal.
b.) Rationalize that Lowe’s is a huge, multi-million dollar company so one little lawn mower doesn’t matter.
c.) Tell all your friends they’re giving away free lawn mowers at Lowe’s.
d.) Take your receipt directly to the manager to actually pay for your purchase.
e.) I before E, except after C (that’s for you, Barb).
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… and f.) public caning
(I still can’t believe someone I know in real life, Dave C., has been caned).
Comment by Joan — 8/14/2006 @ 7:55 am
I would like to believe that I would do D, but honestly, I would probably do A and use the answer in B as rationalization. It wouldn’t really be stealing would it? The checkout lady approved that you could leave with an item that you didn’t pay for. Maybe she thought that she was doing a good deed?
Comment by Sara — 8/14/2006 @ 9:51 am
Joan: That’s an easy one. The answer is D without a second thought. For a lot of reasons, but mostly because the whole world would work a lot better if everyone acted with such earnest honesty. In addition, as someone recently said to me when I was speculating that it appeared someone involved in part of the tobacco remedies request controversy had come out pretty well by putting self-interest ahead of integrity, “Life is long.”
Comment by Steve — 8/14/2006 @ 10:22 am
Well, I can’t tell you what I WOULD do, but I can tell you what I DID.
Last year, when we moved into the house in Anthem, we spent a poopload at Home Depot. When we were driving away, I said to Ethel, “Sheesh - that’s at LEAST nine hundred bucks we spent back there.”
She said “No, it was only five hundred”.
I said “Ethel - the Vermont Castings grill was four hundred. The new porch table and chairs was over two hundred. So it can’t have been five hundred.”
“Here’s the reciept - five hundred and change”.
And the grill wasn’t on there.
It wasn’t just that they waved us through - they carted the stuff to the truck and they TIED THE GRILL BOX ON TOP OF THE TRUCK WITH TWINE. So I KNOW that they knew that we had the grill.
I had to grin, because I knew what I had to do, and I also knew that I would remember doing it - turning around and going back to the Home Depot and saying “Hey, we owe you folks another four hundred bucks…”
Not because we’re “virtuous”, but because we (Ethel and I) already have abused the privileges of dishonesty and rationalization. There’s no question that the work I would have to do to convince myself that it was “okay” to take the grill would be more work than I would have to do to pay for the grill
Comment by Fat Charlie the Archangel — 8/14/2006 @ 1:02 pm
Sara, thanks for pointing out the good deed option. Another thing worth considering is whether telling the manager would get the employee fired (?).
Steve, another way of saying “Life is long” comes from our friend, Nnenna, “Karma’s a bitch.”
FC, now you have me seriously wondering if this Home Depot thing is just a standardized test from heaven. The above story actually occured in Home Depot; I changed the name to protect the innocent (or not?). What are the freakin’ chances of you having the exact thing happen to you?!? As my former priest used to say, “There are no accidents with God.”
Comment by Joan — 8/14/2006 @ 1:33 pm
D & E, but I think there might be some wrestling.
Comment by Scooter — 8/14/2006 @ 10:28 pm
“We value virtue but do not discuss it. The honest
bookkeeper, the faithful wife, the earnest scholar get
little of our attention compared to the embezzler, the
tramp, the cheat.”
-John Steinbeck (Travels with Charley)
Comment by GG (sent off-line) — 8/16/2006 @ 8:03 am
Nnenna was right Karma is a BITCH!!!!!
Here is my short story about my entertainment center from TARGET…
So I was shopping at TARGET for some stuff and came across an entertainment center for like $90 bucks and thought it looks nice so I will get it. I already had a ton of stuff and the entertainment center was last so I thought it got scanned but upon my return home and looking at the receipt it was not on there so I was like SWEEEEEEET! Free Entertainment Center, WRONGGGGG!!!! That POS was the worst thing I have ever had to assemble, the pieces did not fit and the directions were very confusing, even for my buddy with a Phd in Physics. Basically I was so frustrated I pulled an Office Space moment and broke each piece of board with a bat and was about to melt down the metal pieces and make bullets with them, well not that bad with the bullets. But oh yeah karma is a BITCH!!!
Comment by THASAINT — 8/16/2006 @ 8:35 am
I am glad that you mentioned the possibility of getting the person fired, because I immediately thought of that.
I have concluded that I would have gotten everything loaded into the car, and then returned through a different door to pay for it at the Customer Service counter.
I agree with Fat Charlie, it would take more time and energy to justify the free grill than paying the money.
Comment by JOCKO — 8/16/2006 @ 11:39 am
I’d pay for it. I have been in similar situations, and I prefer to go with honesty. If I make an effort and they keep refusing to take my money, then hey, so it goes and I will leave then. But I would make an honest effort to do the right thing, and have done that in the past.
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