Coincidence or Reward?

This morning, I’ve got a true story and a quick question. Story first.

Yesterday afternoon, I dropped by Cabela’s in Kansas City to return a gift I’d recently received. It was a fine gift, but simply something I really didn’t need (don’t tell me you’ve never done the same!). Anyway, after returning the gift and receiving store credit, there I was, stuck in Cabela’s… forced to figure out how to spend $118.36 in store credit. Let me tell you… it was a rough task, but somebody had to do it.

I wandered through the store for quite a while, but eventually settled on two items… a new winter coat for Nancy (she had needed one for some time), and a nice replacement fishing reel for me (I had one wear out last summer). The total? About $160, before tax. More than I had on my gift card, for sure, but I had a bit of extra Christmas cash left over, so it was no big deal. I proceeded to checkout… and things got interesting.

After ringing up the items, the cashier gave me my total… about $130. Pleasantly surprised, assuming that something must have been on sale, I paid with my gift card and a bit of cash. The cashier handed me my receipt, and I looked at it to see what was different.

I found myself smack-dab in the middle of a moral dilemna.

You see, the cashier had made a mistake, ringing up the fishing reel twice… missing the coat completely. The error was obviously in my favor. What to do?

It’s amazing what rushes through your mind in that situation.

“WOOHOO! Free money!”
“No one will ever know.”
“What kind of trouble will that cashier get into when they discover she goofed?”
“I can’t just walk out of here without setting this straight… it’s not right.”
“Leaving now would effectively be stealing from the store.”
“God won’t ever let me forget if I take advantage of this situation.”
“How will I ever return Nancy’s coat if it doesn’t fit without a matching receipt?”

Yeah… I had the cartoonish devil on one shoulder, angel on the other thing going on. It felt like several minutes had passed as thoughts flitted back and forth in my head.

I turned back to the cashier.

“Um, miss… I believe you’ve made a mistake ringing this up. I don’t mind paying less for this stuff, but I don’t want you to get in trouble.”

Handing her the receipt, I explained, “See? You rang up the reel twice and missed the coat.”

With a puzzled look on her face (I think she thought I was nuts for asking to pay more for the merchandise), she mentioned something about not knowing how it happened, and she went to get her manager to get the issue straightened out.

So I stood there, in line, with several impatient-looking people lined up behind me.

Several minutes later, the cashier and manager returned. The manager pointed her in the right direction to straighten things out, and after cancelling out the previous transaction, she rang up the coat.

$49.99… 50% off the coat’s tagged price of $99.99.

Now, maybe I was just blind, but there was nothing in the store where I found Nancy’s coat indicating there was any sort of sale… much less a 50% off sale. But there it was… 50% off.

My jaw dropped. 10 minutes earlier I was about to walk out of the store dancing for joy that they’d goofed in my favor. Now, here I was… looking at a correct total that was less than it was when I was all ready to walk out with my dishonest gain.

I must have simply been standing there with a stupid look on my face, as the next thing I know, I hear the cashier say, “Sir? Here’s your receipt and your change.”

The gift card had covered my purchases completely. She handed me my receipt… and two pennies.

Yes… the gift card ended up covering my purchases… with two cents left over.

Coincidence, or right behavior rewarded by a God in control of everything?

I know what I think. How about you?