Home: Is Honesty Always the Best Policy?

I am the type of person who will check out my receipts, no matter where I am shopping.  If I find a mistake (whether to my favor or not) I stand in line (isn't there always a line??) at customer service and right the situation.

Who would think this would be the center of my dilema?

Here is a case in point.  I was shopping at a local thrift store when I stumbled upon several items I was very thrilled to find.  One happened to be a plastic bag stuffed with figural glass ornaments from West Germany in shapes I had not come across before.  They were in the bag with some regular nondescript glass balls...and several of the figural balls were already broken.  I was trying to get them to the front without any more damage when I stumbled upon an item of cookware I was very interested in.  It happened to be a Le Creuset dutch oven in light blue AND it was in decent condition.  Upon checking the price I found the lid  priced at $2 and the pot itself had a price tag reading $7.  I scarfed that off the shelf in a hurry!! I didn't have a cart or a basket and I still had the ornaments and a few other items in my arms, but I wasn't done shopping.  I headed to the cashier deciding I would pay for the items I had found already, take them to the car, and return to my shopping.  I knew that the cashiers often were not careful with ornaments and I was concentrating on trying to keep them out of her reach, but she grabbed the bag and another one of the good ones broke...grrrrrrr!  (It was still a great deal even if only one survived.)  I really wasn't paying attention to the total  since I was consumed with protecting the ornaments.   When I looked at the receipt there was an item listed for what I thought was the pot...but, as it turned out--the cashiers are urged to subtotal frequently so buyers won't be surprised at the final total.  It was not the item, it was a SUBTOTAL.   I realized that I hadn't been charged for the pot, after all, but the lid only.  

Here is where I was wondering what I should do.  I knew I had done nothing wrong, but how does one prove that.  I also knew that the store had plenty of surveillance cameras, but no sound.  I wasn't sure if the tape would make it look like I was trying to distract the cashier away from the pot and that they might feel that I had tried to get away with something and then felt guilty about it.  I went back to the store, trying to catch one of the managers I had dealt with in the past who sort of knew me.  I missed him three times.  Finally, I was able to track him down and explained that I had purchased something, but had not been charged the correct price, and that I was more than willing to pay the full amount.  

He immediately asked my permission to take the receipt and check the video from that transaction.  I told him I had no problem whatsoever with that.  (But secretly, I did have a little problem...I was seemingly overly concerned about the ornaments and that could be misconstrued as distracting the cashier.)  

I had a sudden wash of fear come over me...thinking that the manager might call the police in on this.  He was gone a long time, and I was really beginning to doubt whether I had made the right decision.  When he returned he stated that it didn't appear to him that I had done anything wrong, and that the cashier was new and did not know that some pots and lids are priced separately and some are priced together.  He told me I was fine to leave if I wanted to.  He thanked me for my honesty, told me I had renewed his faith in mankind and that I should consider the error a Christmas present.  I still felt like he was trying to entrap me...so I insisted on paying the money I owed. 

Instead of feeling good about it, I felt like I had opened myself for ridicule.  I knew, though, that every time I wanted to make a nice soup or stew in my fabulous light blue dutch oven, I would feel like I had stolen it--even if it is was not my intention and not my fault.

 
Most people I have related this story to have said that I shouldn't have bothered with it at all, and others have said when it was offered for me not to pay the full amount, they would have taken that deal and left.  How would you have handled it??