Whether you are short on cash or you are just trying to spend your collection of coins, counting out exact change can sometimes take some time.

What would you do if you were working at a retail store, and an elderly gentlemen was taking a very long time counting out his change even though there was a long line forming behind him.

That is what was happening to the retail worker in this story, so rather than getting upset, he excitedly watched the customer to see if he would have enough change to pay for his items. Unfortunately, after several minutes of counting, he realized he didn’t have quite enough, so he took out a $20 and paid that way.

While anticlimactic, the worker did the right thing by letting the customer pay the way he wanted. Hopefully nobody behind him was in too much of a hurry.

A customer spent seven minutes counting exact change and then paid with a bill anyway

This happened on a weekday afternoon, pretty quiet shift, maybe four people in line behind this guy.

Sometimes you have to pay in coins just to get rid of them.

I want to be clear that I have nothing against people paying with coins. Coins are legal currency. I respect the hustle.

This man, maybe mid sixties, puts his items on the belt very deliberately. One jar of something, a small bag of nuts, I think some tea.

He is ready to pay.

Maybe twelve dollars total. He gets his total, nods like he was expecting it, and then reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a change purse.

Not a wallet. A change purse. The kind with the little metal clasp at the top that clicks open.

If you pay regularly in cash, you get a lot of coins over time.

He opens it and I can see it is absolutely full of coins. Like this man has been collecting coins since before I was born and they have all been waiting for this moment.

He starts counting. Very carefully, very methodically, moving each coin from one side of his palm to the other. Quarters first, then dimes. He is focused. He is committed.

Is he going to make it?

The line behind him is getting a little restless but he doesn’t notice or doesn’t mind and honestly at this point neither do I because I am genuinely invested in whether he’s going to make it.

Four minutes in he has like eleven dollars and change. He needs maybe forty more cents. He counts what’s left. He counts it again.

Oh man, howe frustrating.

He looks up at me with an expression I can only describe as the quiet acceptance of a man who has done the math and knows the answer.

He puts the change purse back in his pocket. Takes out his wallet. Hands me a twenty.

He is going to do the exact same thing next time, but then he will have enough.

I gave him back a bunch of coins in change. He opened the change purse and put them in. Clicked it shut. Said thank you. Left.

The whole transaction was nine minutes. He seemed completely at peace with all of it. I think about him sometimes.

While I’m sure this was annoying to the customers behind him, sometimes you need to take your time and count out the change. It can take a while.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a hardware store employee who lost his cool with customers wandering around after closing time.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about this story.

I think everyone has had one of these change purses at some point in their life.

Being patient with people, especially the elderly, is always good.

This type of thing happens all the time.

Why would someone do this? The story seemed pretty normal to me.

He was very kind to be patient with a customer like this. You never know what someone else is going through.

That being said, maybe he could have helped another customer while this guy was counting, just to speed things along. At the end of the day, however, a couple minute delay isn’t a big deal.