The Cup

Everyone makes mistakes, this is a fact, some make more than others, but everyone has their turn. Some mistakes are considered to be more severe than others, generally determined by how much they cost to fix or how many lives they have affected. Of course no one tries to do things wrong, that is why they are called mistakes. Some may think the education of a person leads the amount of mistakes that are made by that person. I don’t think that this is true because I have seen some pretty stupid people that are very educated. I have also seen uneducated people do really cool things. This could lead us into a discussion about what actually makes a person stupid or not but we will leave that for another time. I guess what I am getting at is that even geniuses like us tend to make a few mistakes. So some time ago we came up with a way to pay for the mistakes that are made around the shop. No it is not capital punishment, or banishment, or even demotion, not that these things were not brought up at one time or another, but what we have come up with is a lot easier than any of these. I can sense the anticipation you may be experiencing just wondering what sick, twisted, or degrading thing we have come up with, but calm down, it is not that exciting. Ok now that you have lowered your expectations I can tell you what it is. One dollar, yup that’s it, you have to pay “the cup” one dollar. What is the cup? Well it is just that, a cup, and if you screw something up you owe a buck in the cup. And then we decide as a group what the money will be spent on, the original idea was that we would wait until there is enough money to buy lunch but that never happened, we could never wait that long. It usually went toward popsicles or drinks at 7-11. After the money is put in the cup it is your responsibility to fix the mistake to the best of your ability and then your sins are forgiven.
I can’t remember why it started but it has been around since before Jeremy and Nate came to work here. It has come in and out of fashion throughout the years, sometimes we have been really strict with it and other times we have forgotten it all together and just settled with plain old ridicule. You might be sitting there reading this thinking, one dollar, how is that supposed to teach anyone anything? Well you see the cup has been here through many different employees and for some of the previous employees this was worse than physical torture. We have had some pretty cheap people come through here and for them this worked beautifully, it brought great joy watching them pry open their wallets and seeing the dust fly out as it opened, and then the pain on their face as they put their hard earned dollar into the cup. It was a lot more fun than even hitting them with sticks and with some people it would have been really fun to hit them with a stick. Currently the cup is back into action. I think there is a few dollars in it, there probably should be a lot more but like I said sometimes ridicule is just more fun. So if you make a mistake and feel the need to pay for it, feel free to put a buck in the cup. It probably won’t change the consequences of your mistake but it might just make you feel better and in our eyes your sins are forgiven. Remember though this is for honest mistakes only, murder, theft, adultery, and all those other commandments, you are going to have to take up with the man upstairs, or at least the law. Now don’t get me wrong we will take anyone’s money but we will not be held responsible for your actions, sinner.