Foreign Exchange Rate

Since I'm trying to become a little more health conscious these days I thought I would check out the new grilled chicken that KFC has been advertising so much lately. Simple enough plan, right? Or so I thought! The advertising on TV said you could get a bucket of the new stuff for $9.99. In Georgia, you have to pay tax on food purchases so that made the total $10.69 and I was to pull ahead to the second window to receive my order. I only had 10 bucks on me so I needed to dig in my console to get the correct change. It was taking me forever to find 4 pennies amongst all the other junk I keep in there--one thing about the Mustang it doesn't have many places to keep stuff. Anyhow, it was my turn at the window and I told the guy to hang on because I was digging for another penny. I didn't really look at him because I'm sure he was probably getting annoyed. (I would have been) Success! I found the last penny that I had been searching for and handed him the money. I smiled and waited expectantly as I watched him count the money into his change drawer and I was surprised when he told me it was going to be a minute. I saw my order already waiting at the counter so I didn't know what the problem was. I saw him call the manager over and watched as they looked and discussed something that he was holding. Meanwhile, my chicken is getting cold, and the cat, who I had taken along for the ride was getting restless...plus, my stomach was growling. Just give me my dang chicken! "I'm sorry, Ma'am," said the clerk, I can't accept this 20 cent piece." "Excuse me?" "This coin you gave me, it's a 20 cent token and KFC doesn't accept them." I asked to see the coin, and sure enough, it turned out to be a Canadian coin that was about the size and shape of a dime. "It's Canadian," I said. "Why can't you take it? Someone had passed it along to me sometime and you can pass it along to the next customer." I thought I was being helpful. "I can't do that," he said. "Because I don't know what the foreign exchange rate is. It says it worth 20 but I don't know if that is close to, more than, or less than a dime. I know it's only a dime, but I have to pay for any shortages in my drawer." You know, I knew exactly where that young man was coming from having worked all those years at the Post Office as a window clerk. If you come up short, it's coming out of YOUR pocket. I dug a little deeper into the console and found him a real dime this time, an American dime.