The Complexities Of Money

Isn't money a difficult thing? All those little numbers, adding up... all those different pieces of paper and coins that mean different things? Do you ever feel confused by them?

Consider the customer. He is faced with a bill of £64.99. He produces: 2x £20 notes, and 1x £5 note. He counts this and says '£65, there you go.'

No sir, i need another £20.

'What?'

I have £45 here. I need another £20.

This leads to a small confusion of rustling pockets and flying money. This reveals a whole mess of notes and coins before me. I now have: 2x £20 notes, 1x £5 notes and five pound coins. I inform the gentleman that, alas, this still falls short by £14.99.
Six 50p coins and two more £1 coins grace my counter. Very good sir, we're still short £10 though.
Three more £1 coins come my way. I come close to giving up. We still need £6. This customer has a pocketful of change that would shame many small banks, so it's not like he's having to really search for the money. There's also a whole £5 note that keeps appearing and disappearing without ever moving in my direction.
The pounds coins start to come out again. This time i count along with them as they hit the counter. '6!...5!...4!...3!...2!...1!... Oh. You've stopped. I still need £1. Thats it... another one of those coins there. There we go! Thabk you sir, and here's your receipt.'

At long bloody last. Bear in mind this gentleman was definately english, and middle aged, and therefore could not be struggling with the language, or unfamiliar with the money. He wasn't obviously mentally disabled. He seemed slightly dim, and smelt like he'd been living in a damp hole somewhere, but was essentially normal. Or at least by my standards, which you may have noticed, could be considerably distorted by now.
Yet it was a considerable struggle to simply get the right money out of him. It's also worth noticing that he had bought something else a few minutes earlier, paying £30 quite effortlessly. Yet suddenly it was like the concept of money was entirely foreign to him, or that i had suddenly demanded that he pay me in Mongolian Togrog.
More mysterious still, this customer isn't unknown to me. I in fact remember him well as he once paid something like £40 entirely in pound coins, which were covered in some strange kind of dirt, that suggested he may have stolen them from a grave somewhere. This sale had been executed without any difficulty, though i tried not to touch the coins more than was strictly neccessary.

It all goes to show that the world is a strange, unpredictable and mysterious place, It's possible that things simply happen so that people can write and complain about them on the internet. Think about it.