My Russell Crowe Moment

In American Gangster, Russell Crowe plays a straight-laced cop. In one of their sting operations, him and his partner finds a car left by drug dealers. Inside the car trunk are stacks (actually, multiple paper bags full of unmarked bills). His character could have taken the money with his partner. Nobody knows where it came from and they were unmarked. Instead, his character ("a fucking Boy Scout"), turns over the millions in unmarked bills to the authorities. Cause it was the right thing.

I was at Target yesterday afternoon, buying multiple wash cloths and two active wear shorts. At the register, as the cashier was scanning my items, one of the supervisors called out to him to turn on the light to show the counter is open. This distracted him. He forgot to scan one of my shorts and promptly placed it in the bag. There was a moment of hesitation on my part. Should I tell him about this? I mean, stores lose inventory all the time. I just stood there, allowing this tiny oversight go on. 

As he rung up the total, I swiped my card and grabbed my receipt. Then I had my "Russell Crowe Moment." I gleaned over the receipt and, in my best performance on the spot, pretended I spotted an error in the receipt. I told the cashier he forgot to scan one of my items. So he scanned the unpaid-for clothing. I paid for it and just went about the rest of the day

In the movie, years after Russell Crowe's character reported the money, he was asked by a member of his task force on a separate operation on what he would have done different with the money. He told them he would have taken it.

I sometimes get freebies from stores by accident or with my full knowledge. Any other time, I would have let what happened yesterday play out without my intervention. I had a knee-jerk reaction to tell the truth. Part of me felt bad and didn't want to get the guy in trouble. A huge part didn't want a bad deed to come back to me. I'm logically against the notion of karma. I think things just happen... No reason whatsoever. I guess I'm still morally bound to superstitious beliefs.

And I'm fine with that :)

I'm done.