Honesty is its own reward

If you're the type who can always do with another feel-good story with a moral neatly stapled to it, this should be right up your alley. If you're more like me, just take it with tongue in cheek, because that's how I'm writing it.

The other day Michelle took an item back to Target to return. An air mattress, I think, that we ended up not needing. Anyway, as she was at the counter showing them the receipt, she noticed that on the same day the air mattress was purchased, she had also bought four of some other item, and on the receipt she was only charged for three.

Being an upright and scrupulous person and not at all like her husband, she went out of her way to call the clerk's attention to this. She asked if she could be charged for the fourth item and just have it deducted from the refund she was getting.

This proved rather difficult. The three items she had been charged for had cost five bucks a piece, but Target's computer was now insisting that at the time she had bought them they had cost $9 each, and were now marked down to $3. So she was entitled to six dollars back for each one, which was more than she paid in the first place.

A manager was called in and could make no further progress with the computer. In the end, Michelle was given 39 dollars for returning a 20 dollar item and told to go away. So the moral, if you care for one, is that being honest pays off.

However, the returns counter at Target is not exactly reliable as a steady source of income, so Michelle has decided to try selling children's books through Usborne. This isn't one of those deals where we're trying to take advantage of our friends by making them by stuff, but we did just want to let you know...if you're in the market for kid's books anyway, these are really good. That's all. So here's Michelle's website.