Has a bank teller ever made a mistake with your deposit?
Keith Christensen, studied at The University of Utah
Updated Sun · Upvoted by Sanchit Agarwal, MBA Finance & Marketing, Management Development Institute, Gurgaon (2018) and Debnarayan Bhattacharya, MSc Finance, EDHEC Business School (2018)
173.9k Views · 19.4k Upvotes
Yes, I was depositing about $400 cash one day. Now this was while I was in college, $400 was a lot of money to me! It was over 2 weeks worth of math tutoring. After I gave her my cash, she gave me my receipt saying I had deposited $400 cash in my account.
And for some reason she also handed me the $400 cash back to me. I took it without thinking, then paused for a sec, and I realized she had no idea she had given me back $400 in cash. I realized I could leave with my $400 and prove I had already deposited it from the receipt she already gave me and the mistake would squarely be the responsibility of the teller.
But at that moment I sighed to myself and remembered the religious and ethical principles that are a part of who I am, and I knew I made a decision a long time ago about what I would do in that situation. I politely gave the money back to her and joked that I did not want to withdraw the money so soon.
I saw a mixed look of surprise, panic, and relief on the woman's face.
I later met a guy who became a friend of mine who worked at that same branch, I told him that story, and he said “that was you??” Apparently the woman had told her co-workers the story of the huge mistake she made. I asked him what the consequences would have been if I had just left with the money, and he said “termination.” That is, she would have almost certainly been fired for that large of a cash discrepancy. He also told me the woman was a single mom.
I'm so happy it was a decision I didn't make in that moment.
Vocabularies：
a bank teller：银行出纳员；
deposit：n. 存款、保证金、沉淀物；
squarely：公平地、公正地、诚实地、正当地；明确地；成直角的地；
discrepancy：~ (between A and B) [C, U] difference; failure to agree 差异、不符、不一致
