refill

ben

One morning while I was on my way to work, I stopped by a gasoline station. I needed to fill my car's tank because the night before it was emptied. So I told the boy who assisted me to have it full tanked. After opening the gasoline tank, the boy inserted the metallic hose to fill the car with gasoline. Suddenly, the boy said, "Whew!!!" with his low voice. I didn't know what happened. I went out to see if there was an untoward thing that happened to him or to my car.

I saw that there was a small spill of gasoline on the floor but I didn't mind it. It was just like a pee of a baby. I rummaged on my bag for my wallet and thumbed-indexed-picked 1000 Baht bill. When I was about to hand in the money to the boy, he quickly said, "Sir, no need to pay. Thank you anyway." I insisted to give the money but he reiterated that I did not have to pay any. After some gives-and- returns of the 1000 Baht bill, I decided to keep it.

I was glad. I said that maybe it was a promotion of their company because I always had my gas refill in there. I was proud to say that I was an avid customer of that shop not only because it was good but because the servicemen were too kind to the clients.

Some days after, I saw the boy again. I thanked him for giving me a good treat of gasoline the last time I visited there. But the boy said, "You were not really suppose to pay at that time, Sir. Your car's tank was already full when you got here. It spilled because it was full and I tried to refill it."

The next time I went to the gasoline station, I brought something for the boy as a courtesy. Not because I got a free refill of gasoline but because of his honesty not taking advantage of me, as his customer.