HE WENT QUICKLY: LEFT HIS CHANGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17905, 22 July 1926, Page 5

HE WENT QUICKLY: LEFT HIS CHANGE.

FRUIT SHOP CUSTOMER DIDN’T AWAIT POLICE. There are bricht little dramas in urban life that help to relieve the monotony- occasionally'. These passing incidents crop up and arc gone. One cropped up last night. SCENE: A fruiterer's shop in Oxford Terrace. Time: 6.30 p.m. Enter a tall well-dressed man, apparently about thirty years of age. He gives no outward indications of the restless thoughts that throng in his calculating mind. The fruiterer approaches from back stage, recognising a potential customer. Customer: What price are the oranges? Fruiterer: From six a shilling up to three for Is 3d. Customer: How much would one orange at five a shilling be? Fruiterer: Threepence apiece. Customer (approaching a box of oranges, which bore a conspicuous ticket “4d each”) : How much for one of these ? . Fruiterer: The ticket's on the box. Fourpence. Customer: That’s too dear, too. What are the prices of the apples?. Fruiterer: 4d. sd, 6d a pound. After a lot of deliberation, the welldressed man buys one pound of the cheapest apples, tendering a 10s note in payment, and receiving 9s 8d change. Customer (feeling in his pocket) : Oh, wait a minute. I find I’ve got more silver than I thought I had. Would you mind giving me the ten shilling note back, and I'll give y-ou silver for it? The fruiterer puts down the ten shilling note on the counter. The customer counts out nine shillings and eightpence, and then another fourpence. Customer: I’ve paid you for the apples. Now will you give me a £1 note for this lot ? Fruiterer: Yes, certainly*. Fruiterer puts the money- in the till, which he closes with a bang. AJter that he goes to the automatic telephone hanging at the back of the shop, and allegedly rings up central, but failing to remove the receiver. Fruiterer (in a loud voice, conducting an imaginary- conversation): Is that the police station ? Oh, there’s a man here trying to ring the changes on me. Will you send a man round—better send, two men. Right away? Good! Customer (betraying signs of agitation) : What’s that for? Fruiterer: I’ll give you y-our change when the constable comes round. Exit customer, rapidly. The biter had been severely- bitten. Whoever he was, the joke is very much on him. The proprietor of the fruit shop is fully prepared to giv,e the man the money- he left behind, provided he receives a quarter of an hour’s notice of his coming.