I was working at the Apple Mac in the equipment room on the third floor at SOAS on a Saturday, meeting a deadline, when a newly-arrived young American academic approached me, asking where he could get something to eat for lunch. I took him to a sandwich bar near Russell Square Tube station. He ordered a sandwich, it cost 42p, he paid, and got 8p in change. He said to the woman, “I gave you a pound. You should be giving me 58p in change.” The woman said, “You did not give me a pound.” The American said, “Yes, I did.” The woman said, “But there’s no pound coin in my till, so you couldn’t have given me a pound.” The American said, “That’s YOUR problem, not mine. I know I gave you a pound.”
(London, 1990)
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