Take a Penny, Leave a Penny

I love this system. If my bill is 7.01. I can plunk down a ten-spot and "take a penny". Then I can walk away with 3 dollars instead of 2 dollars and 3 quarters, 2 dimes, and 4 pennies. Or if I take the change, I can leave a couple of pennies around for the next guy and not have to carry those around. What a great system.

I was waiting in line at Zuzu's for lunch. The guy in front of me ordered a couple of lattes and a pastry. Grand total: $11.01. (Outrageous, but not the topic of this post.) A perfect opportunity to "take a penny". On cue the gentleman hands the cashier the penny and pulls out his wallet. The only suspense left is whether he has exactly 11 dollars or if he fishes out a 20.

Or so I thought. He pulls out......a DEBIT CARD!!!! What the hell? The poor cashier actually had to call a manager over to figure out how to ring up $.01 in cash and put the balance on the debit card. That took 5 minutes.

You can't make stuff like this up.