Chapter 221.

"Well? What'd you think of exactly?"

"It’s just a random hypothesis with no real basis, but these boxes being left around may not be the result of simple laziness. It could very well be the case that this rogue employee is hiding expensive returned items away in these boxes until all the others are sold out. The store is eventually forced to put them on clearance just to cut their losses and get rid of the last one without realizing it only has one left in stock because of this employee's actions.”

“That is quite… bad.”

“Yes. It is quite bad. Perhaps it goes even deeper though. Does your store allow employees to use employee discounts on clearance items?”

“Uh… yes…” The cashier’s expression darkened.

“Well, what if this employee has a friend buying and returning these items. The employee working here then gets ahold of all these returned unopened and unused products and hides them away in all these boxes left over the store. They could then use their employee discount to reduce the price further. If they were running this type of operation on a large scale inside the store, maybe they’re even reselling all these items at a much higher price than they paid. Hell, they might even be able to sell it at full retail price online after they get it at such a heavily discounted price. They could make a killing off the store this way.”

“This would be-”

“Criminal. Yes, it would certainly fall into the area of purely criminal if it were true.”

“You’re calling my coworkers criminals?” She furrowed her eyebrows together.

“Not at all. I’m simply suggesting you check all the boxes up top. If there aren’t random one-off products in them, great. If there are though… I’d definitely request upper management to ensure people who are stocking the shelves do not leave boxes up there. As for anything that happens to anyone involved in such behavior… well, that would be up to upper management to determine.”

“If… it turns out there really are one-off returned items in there, I will be sure to inform a manager.”

“I see. Well, that has nothing to do with me. By the way, I’d like to pay for this now, could you maybe use your employee discount for me?”

“Hmm… how about this… I’ll check a few boxes, if I find any suspicious items, I’ll apply my employee discount… no, I’ll let you have it for free and take responsibility for it. If I find nothing though, instead of paying the $70 clearance price, you’ll have to pay the full price, $200. That will be punishment for concocting such an insane theory and accusing my coworkers of being possible criminals.”

“Sure.” It was a better deal than I imagined. There was nothing for me to lose here. We didn’t sign any contract saying I would buy it, only that I’d pay $200 in the event I choose to buy it. I just needed to say I didn’t want to buy it anymore if I lost. She didn’t see through that loophole.

As for the goth girl, it would be her bad luck if I was wrong about what was going on behind the scenes in this store.

The cashier entered the back room and returned with a step ladder in hand. She exited from behind the counter and headed down one of the aisles. She put down the step ladder on the ground and climbed it.

When she looked inside the box, a deep frown formed on her face. She moved the step ladder further down to another box and checked it. Her expression turned darker and darker with each successive box she checked.

When she eventually returned to behind the counter after she checked a full aisle, she grimaced, and said, “You can have it for free. I’ll need to talk to a manager tomorrow about this.”

“Oh, great.” Honestly, she hadn’t even considered the possibility that I’d done it all myself to get a free item. She was too naive.

I don’t take bets I wasn’t confident in after all. I’d actually picked up and tossed a few random items from the shelves into some of the boxes atop the shelves in the fourth aisle I’d gone down just now. That was in the event I was completely wrong in my deduction. 

What if she picked a different aisle from the fourth? I wasn’t worried about that at all. Though she checked the first aisle, even if nothing was there, the solution was simple. I’d just ask her to check the aisle where I’d found this item in the first place. It was too easy.

To save and earn money, I’d evolved beyond my own mother who only ever hid items that were already on clearance which she came back for once she got paid.

As for why I could so easily see through this little scheme, it was naturally because I myself had done something similar my first time through life. It seemed I wasn’t the only one who’d thought of such a scheme.

Though in my case, I wasn’t the employee in that situation, I was the customer with minimal risk. I simply tempted some random employees struggling to get by on a day-to-day basis at a few stores with the idea of some easy money. All I did was buy and return the items. They would execute what I’d just described. We’d make some easy money online in this fashion and split it. Sometimes we’d just keep the item if it was something we could use.

Anyway, I wasn’t the one stealing from the store, the employee was the one stealing from the store in this unscrupulous shady manner. It technically wasn’t illegal, the employee was still purchasing the goods after all. Though the actions were effectively equivalent to theft of unrealized profits as the result of an organized plot.

I’m sure if an employee got sued for damages, the side that would win the case would be the lawyer with the superior silver tongue.

Was it considered fraud?

Perhaps. But the fact that the employee fairly paid for the goods in the end, made it a gray area. If the employee did things in a clever way where security footage could not prove they were responsible for placing the merchandise in those boxes, what fraud could they prove without that concrete evidence? It could have been anybody if you didn’t physically see the perpetrator place the merchandise in the box. Everything else was simply considered circumstantial evidence that did not prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

“Did you need a bag?” The cashier suddenly asked me that after she removed the security tag on the box.

“A bag? No… I don’t need one.”

“Okay. Here you go.”

“Uh… can I get a receipt for this?”

“A receipt? Are you planning to try and return this to the store to make some easy money or something?”

“No, I just don’t want to be accused later of theft by anyone. If for example by some freak chance security stops me and asks to see my receipt, it would put me in a bit of an awkward situation to explain this entire situation to them.”

“Oh, that’s right. It does sound like a pretty unbelievable story. It really could turn into something troublesome walking out without a receipt. It could come back to bite you later. I understand. I’ll cash it as normal and print out a receipt for you.”

“Thanks.”

She did as I requested and handed over my receipt.

“Thanks. Uh, can I borrow a pen?”

“Sure, here you go.”

“Thank you.” I graciously received it and started jotting a few things down on the blank back of the receipt she gave me. This was the real reason I needed the receipt.

“What are you writing down?”

“Oh, just a few memos to myself. Nothing important. I’ll be out of your hair soon so you can close up. Sorry to keep you here so long after your shift has ended.”

“It’s not a problem. If not for you, this issue at the store may have never come to light. It’s not right if someone’s doing this sort of thing.”

“You’re quite the model employee. A lot of people wouldn’t care and turn a blind eye to it because it’s something troublesome. Most employees would even think it’s the store’s problem, not theirs.”

“Haha… yeah, there are a lot of people like that…”

“Oh? The pen’s already out of ink. Do you have another pen?”

“Huh? Uh, yeah sure. One second.”

I put the pen in my pocket and received another one from her. I continued writing from where I left off. After a few minutes, my hand stopped moving. I’d finished writing everything I needed to.

I returned the pen to her, thanked her one last time, then exited the store. Outside the store, I placed the box inside my jacket and zipped it up.