Toronto, Canada
Due to an aircraft mechanical, we missed our connecting flight. As it was the last flight of the day, we had to overnight at an airport hotel. After the ticket agent printed our boarding passes, she reached under her counter and handed me a stack of what looked like coupons.
“We don’t have any hotel or meal vouchers left, but I can give you these. Someone found them in the office the other day; I think they’re still good.”
“Thanks,” I said, stuffing them into my bag.
Only after booking us into a hotel at the airport for the night, did I look at what the ticket agent had given us.
There were about forty coupons. Worth $10 each.
Good at TIM HORTON’S. (If you know anything about Canada, you know about Tim Horton’s donuts.)
We found the airport outlet and stuffed ourselves on Apple Pie Fritters and tea. With our bill being less than $10 and lots of time to kill, we decided to give a coupon to every customer who walked into the store.
There were a few notable encounters.
One man thought I was trying to sell the coupon to him at a discount.
Man: “I’ll give you $4 for it.”
Me: “You don’t have to. It’s free.”
Man: “Okay, $5. That’s it.”
Me (thrusting it at him): “It’s yours. For nothing.”
Man takes it, frowning at me. “You’re not very good at scalping, eh?”
One woman thought it was a set-up.
Woman: “Get away from me, I know that thing’s fake.”
Me: “Take it to the counter—you’ll see it’s good.” (The counter girl is nodding affirmation behind me.)
Woman (waving me off with a sneer): “Yeah, I do that and then you get me arrested for using a counterfake [her word]. You tell Alphonse I’m not stupid. He needs to get over that whole fake baby thing.” Woman stalks out of the store.
Me: “Wait! What—” (Husband pulls me back into store.)
But most people were just happy.
We were, too. (Although I kind of don’t want to see donuts for a while. A long while.)
