Doodle The Ethicist

Dear Doodle,

I went to the bagel joint this morning with my sister, Whipcreamy. She ordered a poppy seed with tuna salad, muenster cheese and tomato. As the guy was assembling the sandwich, I couldn't help but notice that the owner's annoying 9-year old kid was running around back behind the counter, getting underfoot of the three men hustling during Saturday afternoon bagel and coffee mayhem. The kid had a long mullet, glasses, and he was counter height, shaking his hairdo a lot, putting his hands all over every surface imaginable, doing nothing but being a nuisance. "Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Excuse me," he'd say as he manuevered the narrow one man-width space between his Dad and the toaster.

As "Dad," the owner, counted money by the register, the sandwich guy was folding the sandwich in the white paper, and the kid was watching him with his face a few inches from the preparation of it all when--unbeknownst to my sister-- he sneezed a gross slobby sneeze which he then wiped off his face with the back of his hand. Luckily the sandwich was already encased in two layers of white paper, but still. Gross. Get that kid outta there, you know?

The sandwich plus a whole wheat plain bagel came to about 8 dollars. My sister handed sandwich guy a twenty. Unbeknownst to me, he gave her $22 dollars in change, thinking that the twenty he had handed her was a ten. We walked out of the store. Safely a block away, my sister told me about the $2 profit she made on our free lunch at the bagel store. Then I told her not to feel guilty, as the owner's kid sneezed on her sandwich. Were we justified in not alerting the cashier of the mixup?

-Anne and Whipcreamy, NYC

---------------------------------------------------

Dear Anne and Whipcreamy,

Yes.

-Doodle