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My friend tried to pay me back for pizza with a single penny
We were splitting a large pizza last Friday, and the total came to $18.76. My friend Mark said he'd get it this time, so I gave him my half, which was $9.38. The next day, he hands me a single penny and says, 'Here's your change.' I just stared at him, totally confused. He explained, with a straight face, that since I gave him $9.38 and the bill was $18.76, my exact share was $9.38, so I owed him nothing, but he owed me the penny from the total. We stood there in his kitchen for a solid minute while I tried to follow his math. I finally took the penny and put it in my car's cup holder. It's still there. Has anyone else had a friend get weirdly specific about splitting a small bill?
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jamie79418d ago
My cousin once spent ten minutes explaining why he should only pay for his exact weight in barbecue ribs. He brought a kitchen scale to the cookout. The logic was so twisted it made my head hurt, but he was dead serious about paying for 0.8 pounds of meat and not a full pound. What is it about cheap food that turns people into amateur accountants?
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james_butler11d ago
Man I swear cheap food brings out this weird side of people where they start treating every little thing like some kind of fairness calculation. It's like their brain switches into audit mode and they forget we're just trying to eat and have a good time. I've seen it with splitting pizza where someone counts how many pepperonis they got versus someone else, or at buffets where people get weirdly defensive about how much they loaded their plate. It's almost like the lower the price of the food the more defensive people get about making sure they're not the sucker who paid a few cents too much. Feels like a control thing where if you can't control the taste or the experience at least you can control the exact dollar amount.
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tarac1618d ago
That penny story is perfect. It's the kind of weird logic that makes you question everything. It reminds me of @jamie794's cousin with the ribs, where the act of splitting the cost becomes more work than the meal was worth. Do you think Mark actually believed his own math, or was he just committed to the bit?
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