A true story...
The bank teller
didn't like women.
Women talked too
much.
They laughed too loud.
They changed their minds too often.
Women made big things
out of non-events.
Women were always causing problems
for him.
The bank teller
thought it was just his luck to be a bank teller.
He had to deal with
women.
They continuously
tested his patience.
He would grit his
teeth when, after he had handed a 1000 to a woman, she would say "Oh, no
actually can you give me 9 hundreds, 5
tens, 5 fives, 1 twenty and 5 ones."
Or when a woman
would say " Oh actually, can I take out half from savings and half from my
checking account."
"Yes, of
course" he would say, grimacing as he started over.
So of course, it
would be a woman who would be behind THE MOST STRESSFUL DAY OF HIS BANK TELLER
CAREER.
THE MOST STRESSFUL
DAY OF HIS BANK TELLER CAREER started out as a day like any other.
Different customers
walked up to his teller window.
Some men.
Some women.
Some deposited
money.
Some withdrew money.
There were breaks in
between.
The bank teller
glanced at the clock.
He knew there would
be a sudden influx of customers between noon and 1 p.m. - working professionals
who did their bank work during their lunch break.
The customer who
caused THE MOST STRESSFUL DAY OF HIS
BANK TELLER CAREER was one of them.
She came in at 12:15
and walked up to his teller window when
it was her turn.
"I would like
to deposit this money" the customer said to him, sliding a stack of notes into
the teller slot.
"Sure" he
said, "Name and account number?"
She gave him her
name and account number.
He repeated her name
back to her to make sure he had the right name and account number -
"R....L...……3246792"
She nodded her head.
He counted the
money.
After he counted the
money, he prepared a receipt for her and then slid the receipt back through the
teller slot.
"Here's your
deposit receipt," he said.
This is when the
trouble began.
The young woman looked at the deposit receipt and said "This receipt is only for 10,000
rupees. I gave you 20,000 rupees."
The teller was taken
aback.
"No, Madam, you
gave me only 10,000 rupees. I counted it. You watched me count it," he
replied.
"No," said
the young woman."Impossible. I came
into the bank with 20,000 rupees. Please look on the counter. The other 10,000
rupees must be somewhere there."
"No, there is
nothing on the counter, Madam. What you passed me through the window was 10,000
rupees. Look in your handbag. Maybe the other 10,000 is there."
The young woman rummaged in her handbag. "Not here," she said.
"Where is the
money I deposited?" she then said to the teller. "Please pass it to
me so I can count it again."
"Can't do that
Madam. We have already recorded the
deposit and given you a receipt."
The young woman's voice grew a little louder, "I know I gave you 20,000 rupees because I
walked into the bank with 20,000 rupees to deposit.
She looked around
and saw some familiar faces among the other waiting customers.
They were observing
the proceedings with an interested, puzzled look on their faces.
She wondered what
they were thinking.
Probably wondering
how she, of all people, had made such a large deposit.
"They must
think I am involved in some criminal activity," she thought to herself.
Meanwhile, the
situation between her and the teller wasn't going anywhere, and he was also wondering what people were thinking of him.
He kept repeating to
her "You gave me only 10,000 rupees."
She kept
repeating back to him "I know I
gave you 20,000 rupees."
Finally, throwing up
his hands, he said, "Excuse me...I have to go talk to my manager about
this."
He went to the
manager's desk.
Several other bank
employees gathered around the manager's desk, interested in finding out more
about the developing situation.
Among them was
Cynthia, a long time employee of the bank.
She knew the
customer personally.
"Let me go
speak to the customer. I know her
personally," she told the teller and the manager.
Cynthia approached
the customer and said "Hey, Rosie are you sure you brought 20,000 rupees
to deposit? Could you have made a mistake?"
"I am
sure," she replied. "The
20,000 belongs to a foreign student who had to make an urgent trip to his
country to fetch his fiance. He gave it
to me for safekeeping. I brought it to
the bank, thinking it will be safer in
my account, than at home."
Cynthia said
"Rosie, where was the money before you brought it to the bank?"
"In my desk at
work. I came straight from there since it was my lunch break," she
replied.
Cynthia said,
"Let's go back to your office and check if the other 10,000 rupees might
still be in your desk."
"Okay," she
said, "but I am telling you Cynthia, it is not there. I came to the bank with the full 20,000
rupees."
So they both got
into an autorickshaw and they went back to Rosie's office.
On the way, Rosie
told Cynthia she had made a horrible mistake agreeing to keep the money for the foreign student. It was a large sum of money,
and now half of it was lost.
Cynthia said,
"Let's stay positive, Rosie.
Hopefully, the other half will still be in your office."
They arrived at
Rosie's office, and Rosie took Cynthia to her desk.
Rosie opened
one of the drawers of the desk. It had
some papers in it, but it didn't have any money.
She then opened the
other drawer of the desk.
In it was a stack of
notes, which looked like what a stack of 10,000 rupees might be.
Rosie looked at the
stack of notes.
Relief and utter
embarrassment flooded her.
"I must have
separated the money into two stacks of 10,000 rupees, and put each of them in a
different drawer" she said sheepishly to Cynthia.
"It's
okay" said Cynthia, "these things happen. Let's count it."
They counted it, and
sure enough, it added up to 10,000 rupees.
"Good. Now Rosie, let's go back to the bank so you can deposit it" said Cynthia.
"Oh, Cynthia, I
am too embarrassed to face the teller and all the other bank folks. Can you please take it back and deposit it for
me?"
"No,
Rosie" said Cynthia. "You need
to come back and apologize to the teller. He is known for his accuracy and
honesty, so this incident would have been really hard on him. Plus he doesn't like women, and his dislike
of women will intensify, if you don't come back and apologize to him. Please
come back with me. I will explain that it was a genuine mistake on your part.
Don't worry. It will go okay"
So feeling very
sheepish, Rosie went back with Cynthia to the bank.
Cynthia explained to
the teller and the bank manager what had happened.
Rosie then
apologized to the teller "I am so sorry. I was sure I had come in with
20,000 rupees."
And so the issue
was resolved.
The bank teller was
glad THE MOST STRESSFUL DAY OF HIS BANK TELLER CAREER was over, and his name
was cleared.
It was a woman who
caused it.
But it was also a
woman who saved the day.
Cynthia Saved The
Day.
This
is a true story told to me recently by my sister Rosie. It is from back in the day when 20,000 rupees
was a princely sum of money in India.
Here
is the lesson I took from this story... When a customer is wrong, the challenge
is to show the customer they are wrong
in a satisfactory way for the customer - that is, in a concerned, helping and
understanding way. You have to get
involved in more than a superficial way
to do that, as Cynthia did so admirably,
in this story.
Rosie
was very grateful to Cynthia, and remembers her kind intervention to this very
day….as, I am sure , does the teller.
The
second lesson I took from this story is that people usually do not wish to make trouble for anyone intentionally. They often make trouble for
others, unintentionally. Rosie genuinely
thought she had handed the teller 20,000 rupees. It was an honest mistake.
We
have to learn to roll with these unintentional troubles and problems that will surely come
our way at one time or another.
Happy Woman's Day to all women readers of this post. Here's to forgiving ourselves for our mistakes, laughing at our past foibles, and being proud of all the challenges we have dealt with in our lives, big and small.
