Correct change

A few weeks ago, I needed to do laundry, but I didn't have enough quarters for the job.  It was ~9 pm and freezing outside, so I didn't want to go outside to the drugstore to get change.  Instead, I scrounged around my apartment and found enough change for the laundry....but it was all nickels and dimes!  Not a single quarter!

But I'm desperate to do laundry (I was flying out to Buffalo, NY the next morning.)  So I decide to go across the hall of my apartment building and ask my neighbor for quarters.  Slight problem, though....I have never met my neighbor before.  I know he's married and has 2 young kids, but otherwise, I've never met him or spoken with him or anything.

Anyway, I grab all the nickels and dimes, cross the hall, and knock on his door.  He answers.  I explain the situation, and ask him if he has $1.50 in quarters in exchange for $1.50 in nickels and dimes.  He seems a bit rushed to put his kids to bed, but he says it's not a problem.  He has the quarters.  He goes back inside, comes out a minute later, takes my change, and drops a short stack of quarters into my hand.

I don't want to be rude and count the quarters in front of him, so I just say thank you a couple times and walk back to my apartment.  All set.  No problems, right?

Then I count the quarters....

He gave me one too many quarters!  I gave him $1.50 in change, but he gave me $1.75.  But because I didn't count it right away, I didn't realize his mistake until I was already back inside my apartment.

Now, if it had been the other way around and he had shortchanged me by a quarter, I would not have cared at all.  As long as I had enough for laundry, I was fine.  But how do I know what he thinks about his quarter?!  He probably doesn't care.....but what if he did care?!  I don't know the guy.  He doesn't know me.  But I don't want his first impression of me to be "that-Jewish-guy-across-the-hall-who-steals-quarters."  Seriously!

I consider knocking on his door again and giving him back the quarter, but I've already annoyed him once tonight, and I also don't want to make the impression that I'm that annoying guy with OCD across the hall who cares about every cent.  You should not annoy your neighbors.  Period.

So I'm standing in my apartment, quarters in hand, pondering what to do:

• If I don't give the quarter back, I would feel guilty and possibly get a bad rep from my neighbor.
• If I do give the quarter back, I risk annoying him and his family...and also getting a bad rep.

I'm stuck between a friggin' rock and hard place.  There is no good option here.

In the end, I decide to something to avoid any awkwardness.  However, in hindsight, it might possibly have been an even more awkward decision.

I decided to write a short note and tuck the quarter inside.

Note the strategic use of all-caps THANKS

and exclamation point for levity.  Well-played, David.

I walk back quietly to his apartment and slip the note and quarter under the door.  (Unfortunately, the quarter was not really affixed to the note, and I think it might have slipped out when I pushed the note under the door.  So it's possible that he will just find a note, with no quarter in it.  FML.)

And so ended another saga of WTF-edness.  (On a related note, if I owe you any sort of debt, please let me know.  I'm clearly not so organized about taking care of such things.)