What would you do if you found out your paycheck was $4 less than it should be? Would you insist on getting paid the $4, or would you not worry about it because it’s only $4?

In today’s story, one Marine insists on getting every penny of the $4 he’s owed, and he is willing to wait how ever long it takes.

Let’s read all the details.

You owe me money? That’s fine. I’ll wait for the check.

This is not my story, but a close friend that I served in the Marine Corps with.

He passed away recently and I remembered this story while at his memorial service today.

I think this story truly wraps up what he was like.

There was a problem with the paycheck.

As my friend was doing his final check out to get out of the Marine Corps, it came time to do his final pay audit.

(This is where they figure out down to the penny what your final paycheck will be. Colossal pain in the butt, BTW.)

As the clerk was doing a double check of all the numbers, he caught that someone had miscalculated a transaction.

So, he had been shorted by 4 dollars and change.

(As I understand it, the pay had already been sent to disbursing and there was no fixing it.)

As I’m sure many people on here can attest to, if you owe the US government money, they will take it in a heartbeat.

They don’t care one bit.

I’ve seen Marines not get paychecks for several months in a row because the government needed that money all back at once.

The clerk didn’t know how to handle the situation.

So, as a matter of principle, my friend raised a little bit of a stink, and told the clerk he wanted every penny that was due to him.

The clerk had never run into this before so he had to talk to his NCO (non-commissioned officer, first line supervisor) then the SNCOIC (staff non- commissioned officer in charge, senior enlisted for the pay department.)

It eventually got elevated to the officer in charge of the admin center, a grumpy old Chief Warrant Officer.

The CWO wanted to make the problem go away the easy way.

The CWO came out and told my friend, “You do realize we’ll have to request a US Treasury hard check for you, right?”

“Yes, sir. That’s fine. I’ll wait.”

The CWO even offered him 4 dollars out of his own pocket to get him on his way.

My friend refused just on principle.

He insisted on getting the money from the government.

“I don’t want YOUR money, sir. I want the government’s money.”

So, my friend waited around in their office for about 6 hours for them to cut him a hard check from the US Treasury for around 4 dollars.

He never even cashed it.

Again, it was the principle of the thing.

That friend certainly sounds like an interesting and stubborn guy!

I don’t think $4 would be worth 6 hours to me though.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person is grateful for the definitions of the acronyms.

Another person shares a story about his sister.

This person loves that OP shared this story.

Perhaps it wouldn’t have had to take 6 hours.

Was it really worth the wait?

Some definitely think so!

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.