I’ve been on both sides of this encounter: an employee dealing with a rude customer and a frustrated customer who’s struggling to communicate.

In this story, though, there’s a twist to the typical retail encounter between cashier and customer. Wanna know what it is?

Let’s check it out.

??!!!!?!?!?!!! Apology?!?!?!!?!!

So, here’s this bloke. About 65. It’s early in the morning, and he’s getting food from our breakfast bar so he can eat breakfast with his 25ish son.

They’re behind a lady in line who has actual groceries.

So when they walk up, the lady is about halfway through paying.

But the instant the dad reaches my line, he tries to hand me his cash for HIS order.

He had to wait his turn.

I tell him, “Sir, if you’ll give me just one second, I can finish up with this woman and I’ll be right with you.”

He glares at me but retracts his money.

A minute later, the lady leaves, and I turn back to the man, who shoves his twenty at me and then stares at me blankly when I take it.

I weigh his food, ring him up, and it comes out to, like, $15.32 or something. I tell him that that’s his total, and he just stares at me and takes his food.

I shrug and put it into the register.

This guy sounds really frustrating.

Now, once you enter the amount into the computer, you’re not supposed to change it, even if you know for sure the amount in the register will be the same, it’s just company policy.

So as I’m putting the twenty in, he goes, “Wait, I was going to give you the 32 cents.”

Why the heck didn’t you, then, I think, but whatever.

“Sorry! I should have asked. Unfortunately, I can’t change it now that I’ve put it into the computer.”

He tries to convince me to for a minute, then he gets mad and says, “Your way or the highway, right? Jerk.”

But that wasn’t the end of it.

He yanks his change from my hand and walks off with his very awkward-looking son.

Here’s where the story gets impossible.

I’m going on with my day, forgotten all about the guy, ringing up other people, when I hear a little throat clear from the end of my register.

I look over, and it’s the guy.

He was not expecting this!

And you won’t believe what he said.

He said, “I am so sorry about earlier.”

He really did! He apologized!

He explained that he has low blood sugar that makes him very cranky, but that that was no excuse, and he felt so bad for being so rude and short with me.

It completely made his day.

I told him it was absolutely fine, and he wished me a beautiful day and left.

He apologized!

A real customer actually gave me an unprompted apology for their rudeness!

I spent the rest of the day just glowing with happiness.

Yeah what a twist ending. If only they all went like that…

What do the comments on Reddit have to say about this happily ever after (for a day)?

One person says the math could have mathed.

This poster is like, sorry doesn’t have to hurt.

Someone else says, inconceivable!

Another poster says, been there, apologized that.

Another user is like… people need to change.

Is it too late to say sorry now?

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.