Something I’ve loved for a long time is the shopping trolley theory. I don’t mean the trolley problem, although I do love that. This is a different thing. When you go to a shop to buy a lot of stuff you get a trolley. If it doesn’t require a £1 coin then that’s wonderful, you’ve got some free assistance. You grab your things, wheel it back to your car and then you’re left with this trolley. Putting it back is a really simple task, normally there’s a trolley deposit area near you. However, it is slightly more effort than leaving it next to your car. There’s no requirement to take it back, unless it’s one of the £1 coin ones.
There’s no rules or orders, no cameras watching you. You can leave the trolley where you stand without any guilt or punishment. The reason to take the trolley back is that it’s the societal convention – it’s the right thing to do. Helps the next person, helps the person who gathers them up too. To me, it truly is the ultimate example of whether a person is capable of self governing, i.e. doing it without being forced to. The absolute only reason to take it back is that it’s the right thing to do. I believe that if someone cannot do this, then they are no more than an animal. If they must be forced to take it back then they are not a good person. The simplest of tasks, the gentlest of opportunities. The reason I bring this up is that for the second time since starting my company, I’ve had a client pay me twice.
Occasionally they pay too much or too little, mistakes can be made, but straight up paying an invoice twice has only actually happened twice to me. The first time was a small amount of money, and I debated for the evening over what to do. I understood that it felt wrong, even if I tried to convince myself by saying ‘I’ll wait for them to realise’. When it happened this time, it was a much larger sum. It was a large company and the invoice obviously got caught up in their system. I considered it for a brief moment before settling on contacting them about the double payment and offering the refund. There’s a few things going on here. First of all, there’s me as a human requiring money to thrive in the capitalist system I inhibit.
However, I am not in need of money so possibly were I more desperate I would think differently. Then there’s the idea that I did my work and got my payment, it is not right to receive money for nothing. Although I do run a business and our aim is profit, or perhaps my aim is to be doing the work I’m doing and the payment happens to be part of it. A section of my mind considers the more mystical implications of my decision. Is there a cosmic balance I am part of whereby accepting this money puts some weight on one side of the scale tipping the balance? Am I then due an event to restore order? Is there a grand being watching over my actions waiting to test me with challenges like this?
As an Agnostic, I don’t believe a definitive NO and especially not a YES either. It seems that whatever tricks we try to use on ourselves, I must be a good person because I wanted to return the money. There’s some pride to be found for sure, but only in the sense that I feel a positive emotion towards doing the right thing. This is me taking the trolley back, and it’s how I know to trust in myself as a human. A few days after writing this, I picked up a bottle someone left behind on the train and put it in the bin, and people stared at me doing it. Be the change you want to be in the world, let people see your good actions and hopefully it’ll inspire them to do the same.