Audacity

The other day, I was waiting in queue at Starbucks, and there was an elderly woman in front of me. She looked the rather well-off kind. Well, you know - the regular Starbucks kind. When she reached the counter,

"Can I just have an empty cup?" she asked.
Then, cup in hand, she shuffled over to the milk and sugar counter, and proceeded to fill the entire cup with milk.

Superslueth Ficali was, of course, watching the entire action covertly, while pretending to innocently wait my turn in line. To be honest, I was as impressed as I was aghast. This entirely beat the Smooth Criminal move Doobs, Bobbis, Delta and I had pulled earlier in the year when we snuck in an extra movie at the cinema. Nope. This was Bonnie and Clyde caliber. Anyways, it's all about bringing down the Establishment, right? Especially when the establishment is Starbucks (a.k.a. FiveBucks).

Just then, "hey!" shouted the Starbucks attendee. And went over to where the woman was neatly finishing topping up the glass with the last sip of milk she could fit in there.
"You're going to have to pay for that milk, ma'am" the attendee told her firmly.

I didn't blame him, I suppose. He was just being the good corporate citizen. I thought she might apologise and pay for the milk. But boy, I guess I just don't understand human nature at all.

"What do you mean?!" She exclaimed, "Why are you picking on me?! I'm just adding milk to my coffee same as everyone else."
"Ma'am, that's a whole glass of milk, and Im afraid you're going to have to pay for it."
"I refuse to pay. I just bought my coffee, and now I'm adding milk."
"Ma'am, I just gave you that empty cup. You didn't buy any coffee. Now if you would kindly pay for the milk, I would really appreciate it."

I, of course, absorbed by the situation playing out in front of me, had totally forgotten my own coffee. Anyway, this was far more entertaining. Wow, all this for a glass of milk? I hope Starbucks knew how lucky they were to have this employee. I hope he gets promoted to head barista for this.

The woman, obviously, was rather less impressed by his antics than I was. She slammed the glass of milk down on the table (some milk splashed out with dramatic effect). She tossed her head and snorted. "Scumbags!" she said (although she'd been the one thieving). And she stalked out the door, filled with a genuine sense of self-righteousness.