The Trigger

While shopping a couple of weeks ago I was behind a lady in line at the checkout. She had three little kids climbing in and out of the cart while she was attempting to put her purchases up on the counter. She took out the pop (or for you Southerners, that would be soda) from the bottom of her cart and told the clerk that she had two. She then took out a gallon of milk and told the clerk she had four. I noticed she had a carton of ice cream down there too, but she didn't take it out. She leaned on the counter all poised to pay.

My head starting reeling. Do I say something? Who do I say it to? What do I say? Should I mind my own business? Hey, this is my business. If she gets away without paying for her ice cream, that is shoplifting and then the prices of goods I buy will increase. She looks innocent enough - I think it could be an oversight. After all, she had to try to entertain her kids and get all of the other groceries up there. I decided to quit rationalizing and politely let her know that she also had some ice cream at the bottom of her cart. She thanked me and proceeded to tell me that it would have been awful to find it when she got to the van and then had to turn around with the kids and come back in and pay for it. She thanked me again.

What did I get from this experience - the trigger. That would be the "do the right thing" trigger. When you start to rationalize your steps away from what you know is the right thing to do - just do the right thing.