Remember to leave the bill on top of the till

It was more than thirty years ago, my first day working at Silliman's Hardware (now closed) in New Canaan, and I was ringing out a customer at the register. He gave me a ten-dollar bill, which I put in the drawer and gave him change.

"I gave you a twenty," the man said.

I could feel my face reddening. "No, sir," I said, "you gave me a ten."

"I'm certain I gave you a twenty."

My pulse started to race. Could it have been a twenty? Not in my mind. I opened the drawer. There was a pile of twenties and a pile of tens. The manager came over. He pulled a ten out of the drawer and gave it to the customer. "Sorry, sir," the manager said.

He closed the drawer and looked at me. "Always leave the bill on top of the register until you've given the customer his change. Then put it in the drawer. That way, there's no question what kind of bill it was."

Two lessons learned. One, leave the bill on top of the till. Second, it is hard to win an argument with the customer--and sometimes it is not worth winning.

To this day I watch to see if a cashier waits to put the bill in the drawer until the change is counted out. Many times, they don't.

Overextending the expense account on client entertainment

Hank Bates tried to make up for an embarrassing mistake by his boss by inviting his clients to a nice dinner... and may have been a bit too generous.