The Cost of Karma

Tonight Jon and I had the evening to ourselves, which is quite nice, especially as I have begun to face two weeks of no school and no camp, and a husband who is traveling for work. A little Sunday night reprieve from my most loud and kinetic life. It started with, hands down, the best Palak Paneer in town. A little vegetarian Indian place called "Udipi". Just wonderful and buttery and good. There was also onion-y dosai and Aloo Chat, a cold, crisp dish of spicy vegetables and cilantro.
Stuffed is an understatement, but Jon needs reading for the plane, and we followed dinner with Borders. The Omnivore's Dilemma, No Logo and Time Out New York found Jon. Domino Magazine, a book for Noah, A Deepak Chopra book and The Universe In A Single Atom-The Convergence Of Science And Spirituality, found me.

There was a great summer deal going on, a certain table held buy one, get the second book half off signs. So when Jon got his Omnivore's Dilemma, I jumped at the chance to finally read the Dalai Lama's book on science and spirituality.
We go to the counter, a big haul in hand. Fumble through, looking for the stupid Border's card, get rung up. Jon eyes the annoyingly high bill and notices that there is not, indeed, any $7 book on the receipt. Seven dollars would be the price of my Dalai Lama book, half off. The man who rings us, a very nice fellow, apologizes greatly and informs us that not all the books on the "buy one, get the second one half off" table are part of the deal. Which is, misleading and ridiculous, as they are all, small paperbacks. We take it in stride, I gently voice the sneakiness of it all.
On the way out, Jon passes said, dishonest table and instantly zooms in on the two remaining Dalai Lama books, WITH buy one, get the second half off, red, triangular stickers stuck to their covers!
Jon wants to head back, get out rightful $7. I agree, it is our $7, but I feel badly, don't want to embarrass the nice man whop rang us up. I cave, we get back in the line and five minutes later, are staring at the same clerk. He blushes, he apologizes, we smile and reassure him that we understand. There is an awkward pause. A check and a re-check of the receipt. An odd stare.
This is when our sales clerk giggles and says; "Wow! Actually, the Dalai Lama book was never even on here! I guess I didn't ring it up!"

And so, once again, karma for some reason, has it's way. We went up to get our $7 back, and left spending $7 more than we had in the first place!
The moral? I have no idea. I need to read the book first.