My Husband, the Rule-Breaker

My husband is a rule breaker. I am a rule follower. The following story illustrates my husband's belief that he only has to follow rules that make sense to him. : )

We buy goldfish by the dozen to keep Meggan's turtle fed. At Walmart, there is never an employee to scoop fish back in the fish department...or in any aisle remotely close to the fish department. While shopping this weekend, I sent Byron to get fish while I filled the cart with groceries. I explained that it was a good time to get fish, since he would have plenty of time to track someone down and wait for them to scoop out all the fish. After all, I had a LOT of groceries to buy. I was only half way through the grocery section when he showed up with a bag full of goldfish. I was so surprised!

As I questioned how he got the fish so quickly, Byron explained that he doesn't wait for someone to scoop his fish. He just does it himself. "But you have to have the numbers!" I exclaimed with great concern. He proudly produced a piece of paper with many numbers and the quantity of fish written on it.

Next stop, checkout line:
While teenagers unloaded the groceries from our shopping cart, Byron handed the fish and the paper-with-numbers to Checkout Guy. Checkout Guy punched in the fish numbers, nothing...punched in the fish numbers again, nothing...punched in the fish numbers a third time, nothing. Then he called a manager over to help. (I am stifling my nervous giggles at this point. Are we going to get caught???)

Checkout Guy explained to Manager that he didn't have the right numbers for the goldfish. Manager asked in disbelief, "they didn't write the code down?" Checkout Guy held out paper-with-numbers and said, "This is all I got!" I am thinking of crawling behind the cart at this point. Do-they-know-we-scooped-our-own-fish!?!?  Byron was standing with a casual, smug expression on his face, revealing no guilt.

Checkout Guy and Manager figured out the necessary numbers to allow us to pay for the goldfish. Which is great, because in Byron's words to our family on the drive home, "Hey, it wasn't like I was trying to steal the fish!"

Then the funniest part of the whole thing...Checkout Guy held out paper-with-numbers and said to Byron, "do you want this back?"

BUSTED!