Some people will go out of their way to waste your time when they think they are proving a point.

What would you do if a customer dumped hundreds of loose quarters on your desk to punish you for something you had nothing to do with?

Would you lose your patience?

Or would you calmly turn the situation back on them and let karma do the rest?

In the following story, one college student working the front desk at an office deals with this very situation and flips the script.

Here’s what happened.

I uno reversed a malicious compliance

This happened years ago when I used to work at an office as a front desk clerk one summer during college.

One day, this lady came in to pay a fine.

She was very rude and angry about her fine.

I don’t know the particulars because all I did was work the front desk.

She decided to try a little malicious compliance.

Her fine was about $250, and she said she was going to be paying in quarters. I knew I had to comply since we’re supposed to accept any legal tender.

I took the bags from her, but realized that she had unrolled every single roll of quarters.

She said that since we want to waste her time with a stupid fine, she will also waste our time.

I tried to explain/beg her not to do this to me, since I had nothing to do with her fine.

She didn’t care and said that we’re all evil.

She smirked and said, “one band, one sound.”

I realized then that there was no reasoning with her.

Each time there were distractions, she began counting over again.

I was furious, but I began counting one by one.

We were interrupted by multiple phone calls and customers, so I had to restart a few times.

She started to realize how long this would really take.

She tried to stack the quarters to help me count faster, but I told her that it was my job.

That I couldn’t just take word that the stacks were correct, so I had to do it one by one, like she asked for.

2 others came, paid, and left while she was still standing there.

She started getting mad, saying that I was wasting her time on purpose.

I told her that we don’t have a coin counter, so this is how long it would take.

She threatened to call the police, I told her to go ahead, that I’ll have to restart when the police get here, so I can be sure to get an accurate count.

Frustrated, the lady was tired of waiting.

After someone else came and left, she finally snapped. She whipped out her credit card and paid.

As she was leaving, she snatched one of the bags from the counter, but the handle gave way, spilling all the coins all over the floor.

She scooped up what she could but left a good chunk. I told her she was littering, and she flipped me off.

I got a broom and swept up the coins.

There were about 192 quarters on the floor.

When I was leaving work, I found some more in the parking lot.

It wasn’t a whole lot of money, but for a broke college student, it was great.

Wow! Those would’ve taken forever to count.

Let’s see what the readers over at Reddit think about this situation.

This person doesn’t like it when people pay in change like that.

It is quite funny.

The story gave this person Rainman vibes.

Here’s someone who was amused by the whole thing.

This was well-played!

It takes a quick thinker to turn a situation like that around so quickly.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.