Come on guys and gals, how honest are you? We can kindly hide behind our Forum names without each other knowing who we really are (although it's surprising how soon I can draw a picture of each one of you!).

The big question here is: How honest are you? Are you so honest that it's almost an obsession, like me? Can I just point out that I'm not trying to draw attention to my 'sheer honesty' so you can all pat me on the back and say 'Well done, Chum'. It's about YOU. Come on now, come clean.

I'm so honest that in the past I've been known to do the following:

I once bought a Beano comic. Got out of the shop and realised I'd actually taken TWO copies. I rushed back into the shop and apologised for this theft handing back the other 14p comic;

Whenever I've bought (say) a can of Coke, advertised at 45p and gone to the counter and been told it's 40p, I've always said 'It says 45p on the fridge door'. Infact, whenever I've been given the wrong change (ie too much) I've always said 'I think you've given me too much change here'.

I once didn't have quite enough money to buy something from the newsagent. I was about 2p short. The bloke said 'Settle it next time you're in'. Although it's a shop I go in practically every day, I couldn't live with the fact that I owed this guy 2p. So I came straight back home, got the 2p and 'settled' it straight away.

The thing is, whenever I've been so honest, the response I get is 'Blimey, you're honest', as though I'm a wierdo. I come from a background where being honest is the way it is. Family business and so on. A duplicate credit note on an account and I'm on the phone 'You've given me too much credit'.

The moral question is, am I alone in this attititude to being honest? I simply could not be any other way.

Come on now, be frank!!

I am same as you Oust.
Last week the landlord of the pub charged me £4.70 for 2 pints of lager and an apple tango.

I told him straight away he had not charged me enough, and sure enough he had forgot to take for the tango.

Also i have been given change for a £20 note when i only gave £10, and gave it back straight away.

It is bad Karma to be dis- honest.

Im far to dishonest, if im ever given the wrong change (too much) i run out of the shop as errors cannot be rectified afterwards, if a lie will benefit me well then ill lie and ill lie good.

Originally posted by Ousetunes
The thing is, whenever I've been so honest, the response I get is 'Blimey, you're honest', as though I'm a wierdo. I come from a background where being honest is the way it is.

The Prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace, said to his followers:

You should tell the truth, even if you think it will harm you, for it will in fact benefit you.
You should not tell a lie, even if you think it will benefit you, for it will in fact harm you

That advice helped me avoid 3 points on my licence and a £60 fine several years ago :thumbsup:

yes, ousetunes, like you, I am almost anal about honesty.

I will hand overpayments of change back.

Only the other day, i was in Tesco on West Street, and the assistant handed me 76p change, and my reciept.

I did not realise that 26p of it had slid off the reciept, and fallen into my carrier bag. All I was left holding was the 50p piece. so I pointed it out to the assistant as being only 50p (the coins had merely been placed on the reciept, not into my hand, so they just slid off the paper, unseen).

The lady gave me the "missing " 26p, and I left the shop.

When I unpacked my bag, I found the missing 26p, so I nipped back across to the Tesco, and handed it back.

The manageress was really surprised. I don't know whether it was that I had come back when it was too-much change that had been given over, or that it was a sum as trivial as 26p.... but, meh! 26p is 26p, at the end of the day.

Also, I didn't want the young lady to get in trouble if her till did not tally up, at the end of the day.

PT

If either of you are the man who gave me a scottish pound note and accepted change for a fiver yesterday .... please get in touch asap ... :P

Having said that, people who use my shop are just wonderful - will always point out if they have the wrong change ... either way! Customers? ya just have to love em! :D

That's a great quote Abdul. As for you Speeed, don't you ever think about the person from whom you've 'benefitted'? (Personally, it would hang on my concience all day.)

Someone running a business in good faith has enough to worry about, paying bills, staff and Her Majesty's Tax Inspectorate without worrying why his till's a tenner down? Does he think a member of his staff is trying it on? It might only be ten pounds, but what if 17.%% of that is tax. Now he has to claw back £11.75 just to be back where he was.

I'm not having a go at you Speeed! But in all honesty, I just couldn't walk out of the place feeling chuffed at myself. Take a read of Abdul's quote from the Koran (I'm guessing) and then take a look at yourself.

At the end of the day i get ripped off enough by shops and bars with there stupidly high prices, so the way i see is it that im just getting a bit back. I understand that a lot of people will disagree with me but i mean Morrisons etc can afford to lose £10. Granted small shops might not be able to but they never give me too much change anyway.

Originally posted by speeed
At the end of the day i get ripped off enough by shops and bars with there stupidly high prices, so the way i see is it that im just getting a bit back.

The problem is, where do you draw the line?

If you were working in a shop, would you happily accept being robbed at gunpoint because someone wanted to 'get a bit back after being ripped off so much' ?

Originally posted by speeed
. Granted small shops might not be able to but they never give me too much change anyway.

so I can take it you weren't the scottish pound note man, then speeed? :P

I was once picked a little plastic button up in a haberdashery department and found it in my pocket half an hour later. Couldn't get it out of my mind so I had to trundle back to the shop and return it the next day....


I am a loser!

Originally posted by speeed
At the end of the day i get ripped off enough by shops and bars with there stupidly high prices, so the way i see is it that im just getting a bit back. I understand that a lot of people will disagree with me but i mean Morrisons etc can afford to lose £10. Granted small shops might not be able to but they never give me too much change anyway.

I admire you for being honest on this post Speeed. But then again, if you don't like paying 'stupidly (sic) high prices', then why do you go to these places? Are you being forced?

Ofcause it's easy to say Morrisons, or HSBC or British Telecom can 'stand to lose' a tenner, but they don't lose do they? It just pushes up the prices that real honest folk have to pay! It's like car insurance. Those who are happy to pay for it are - in a sense - paying for those who can't be ar5ed to do. If everyone DID pay, it would be cheaper for all of us.

Still, as I said, thanks for being frank on here:thumbsup:

Nope not me with the scottish pound note, and yes i would happily give someone the money from a shop at gunpoint rather that than be shot!

Fair point but look at the prices of insurance and i can see why people wouldnt want to pay it. And take petrol for example Morrisons at halfway was about 2p more per litre than morrisons at hillsborough a few months ago, therefore im paying more as i live on the other side of the city. So if im wrong changed i thing fair enough ill keep the extra as compensation.

But suirely there is other people that would agree with me or am i out on my own? If i am then i may reconsider my life and be more honest.

Iam sooooo honest it hurts!!!

my mates just come into work and Ive told her straight away........


"I can see your thong straight through your dress"

she was rather horrified but hey.... Iam honest....


On that note would you tell someone which seemed embarrassing like.... You have a bogey hanging from you nose..... or your hair is stuck up at the back....

I'd like to think that my friends would tell me, in fact, I'd be hurt if they didnt. Honesty is the best policy.

:thumbsup:

Originally posted by technophobe
On that note would you tell someone which seemed embarrassing like.... You have a bogey hanging from you nose.....

Rather than just using butal honesty, a little tact is required in situations like this.

If a friend has a surprise hanging from their nose, just give them a tissue instead; they'll soon work it out...

Originally posted by speeed
[B]At the end of the day i get ripped off enough by shops and bars with there
stupidly high prices, so the way i see is it that im just getting a bit back./B]


It's funny how personal retribution seems such a good idea when you're the one dishing it out, and how bad it seems when someone does it to you...

I'm painfully honest. I've lost out on home/contents insurance claims because I told the facts rather than 'boosting' the claim as most people do. I downloaded some tracks from an MP3 site and then actually went out and bought the album (and the follow up album too, 'twas good). Once bought a 2nd hand distributor for my car but was a fiver short. He said let me have it next time you're down this way, so I went down the next day (I only live up the road) and gave it him. He was pleasantly surprised.

All these things seem to be fairly trivial, but I find that it gives me peace of mind, and generally makes people think of me better. If someone is dishonest with me I will avoid dealing with that person, but I will not be dishonest in return; that perpetuates and can cause real harm later on.

When I first came to Sheffield I was given change for a £20 when I had paid with £10, in The Ecology Co shop on Crookes Valley Road. Despite being seriously skint, I was honest and handed the tenner back. It bode well for me- I ended up working in that shop and looking after it while the owner was away:)

If we are to believe the theories of Erving Goffman [a Sociologist of the Symbolic Interactionist school], all human interaction is essentially based upon falsehood and dishonesty. According to the author, we are all akin to actors on a stage, engaged in the 'dramaturgical model'. In other words, we are all managing our impressions in the 'front region' , where we interact with others, and are only truly 'authentic' when relaxed, alone and in the 'back region'. We use verbal and non-verbal means to convey as accurate a picture of our feelings etc as we can, and conversations are bound by unwritten 'rules', i.e, proximity in conversation, duration of eye contact etc. These 'rules' are subtle, and there are cultural variations, i.e, in Arab countries, closer proximity and longer eye contact is permitted [or socially acceptable] in conversation/ interaction than in Western societies.

The point is, Goffman argues we are never truly 'ourselves' when interacting with other human beings. We are actively 'managing our impressions'. In common parlance, we are all 'two-faced'. Human interaction is based upon falsehood. Blushing, for example, according to Goffman, is what happens when we are 'caught out' in bogus self-presentation. In other words, 'impression management' has broken down.

I reckon I'm somewhere in the middle here...

95% of the time I'm honest and give back change in pubs etc as yes, I would not like it doe to me if I was working somewhere and do not think it is right trying to blag the little man.

However, I have less sympathy for large organisations and have in the past "played" them to my advantage.

Yes I agree this does push up premiums but I hardly think me fiddling the insurance for a few hundred is going to mean anyone is paying more than an extra 0.00000001p in insurance prems. (this is an example, in case any Endsleigh employees are reading!!!).

I Just don't like big firms is all. Financial firms in particular seem to take any available opportuinity to rip off their customers so I reckon its just a case of taking the power back.

I like to be as honest as possible, and will generally say if I've been given too much change. And if someone's not got enough change for me, I tell them to leave it... however!
My sister and I were in town and went into birthdays, she bought something and didn't check her change it was only later when she tried to buy some chestnuts (it was at Christmas) and the guy said 'hey this isn't a pound, it's a New Zealand dollar!'
I felt so guilty because he thought we'd done it on purpose. The thing is, we went into town and my sister had a note, so the only coins she had had come from Birthdays, of course, they wouldn't accept it back.

This could have been a mistake but how about my 15p change from the bus when I got two foreign coins, both resembling a 10p and a 5p? Could that have possibly been coincidence? I think not. That's the one thing I hate, when I try to be honest, and because someone else has not checked a customer's money they try palming it off on me!

I'm dead honest me -
"Does my bum look big in this?"
"Yes" :P

If people don't want an honest answer, then why ask the question...