I was in the checkout queue at Tesco's earlier, minding my own business, like. A youngish lad (teen) caught my attention by pulling my coat jacket.
"Is that yours?" he asked, pointing down to £5 note close to my shoe. I bent down and picked it up and thought for a moment, considering what money I actually had on me.
"I have two £10 notes in my wallet and some loose change in my pocket, therefore it can't be mine. Why don't you have it since you noticed it?"The look of astonishment on his face as I handed it to him was a treat. He accepted it, but then a girl behind him chipped in
"'Ere, why don't we split it?""Because, he noticed it and neither you nor I did" I said. The man immediately behind me (not the lad) started telling a tale about finding a whole bundle of notes at Orly Airport and handing them in, never hearing anymore about it and wondering if he should have pocketed the find. The girl of course said that he should have stayed
schtum and said nuffink.
Meanwhile the lad was still beaming at his good fortune; the couple of items in his basket paid for with some change over probably. There were more exchanges with an interesting array of attitudes suddenly being aired
I wonder what would have happened if I'd just pocketed the fiver and said
"Ta, mate"? It's almost worth dropping a fiver for the live theatre