When the Cashier Forgets to Charge You, Do You Go Back and Pay?

For the last few weeks my son has been begging me to eat at Subway.  So on Saturday we finally went to Subway for lunch.  This trip to eat was a little different, I had a teachable moment for my son.

We walked in and E walked up to the counter and ordered his kid's meal with a turkey sandwich and mayo.  He picked out his chips and walked up to the counter.   I was ordering my salad (I'm trying to avoid bread).  E. picks up his kid's meal with the cool Mickey Mouse shoulder bag and is holding it.  My salad is finished.  E forgot his drink cup so I asked for one and they told me to grab a medium cup.  That right there should have been a red flag, since they give smaller cups for kid's meals.  I went ahead and paid, $10 and some change.

E. got his drink.  I got my water and we went and sat down at our regular table.  I started looking at the receipt, they didn't charge me for his meal.  The drink yes, but not the meal.

I told Ethan they didn't charge me for his food, and asked him to sit there as I took the receipt up to the cashier.

"You didn't charge me for my son's kid's meal."

The cashier looked as the receipt and looked at me like I was crazy and said, "That's OK."

I just looked at him funny and said, "no, it's OK, I'll pay for it."

"No ma'am, it's OK."

I said thank you and walked back to the table.

Ethan asked me why I did that.

I told him, that if we had walked out of that restaurant knowing we didn't pay for that food and didn't bring it to their attention we would have stole his kid's meal.

He got this shocked look on his face and said, "Momma we don't steal, that's wrong."

I told him that's right, it is wrong to steal.

I went onto explain that yes, they made a mistake, but it was not my place to take advantage of that mistake.  I didn't want to steal food, so I went up to correct the mistake.

This isn't the first time I have done this sort of thing.  One time I noticed the deodorant I was purchasing didn't make it on to the checkout because it was weirdly stuck in the basket.  I loaded my other groceries, took the deodorant to the customer service desk and told them that this was in my basket and I didn't pay for it.

They looked at me and said, "why did you come back in here to pay?  You could have had free deodorant."  I told them that was not the way I was raised and not who I was, and that I did not steal things.

She just laughed at me and rang up my deodorant and I paid and went along.

Why do people find someone being honest crazy?