Tubby children and chromies...

I had two little chubby kids on BMX bike come into the shop tonight looking for inner tube valve caps. I showed them the usual “chromies” (stupid chromed skull, eight-balls, and other ridiculous shapes of caps that kids dig), but of course they did not have enough allowance money from the chores I’m sure they ignore. So, being a softy manager like I am, I dug around in the back and found some used plastic caps we had laying around and hooked them up for free. They left excited. Half and hour later they show up asking for another set. I realized my mistake in creating a new set of local mooches that will now bother me on a regular basis. I told them the freebies were a one time favor, and that they’d be charged for any more. My sales guy on staff tonight joked with them that he didn’t know why they were coming in to see us when there was a parking lot full of cars that had the same kind of valve caps. Kids of course do not recognize sarcasm, and my sales guy does not know how to relate to kids. Ten minutes later I spotted our chubby little friends taking the valve caps off my own pickup (today was one of the very few days I actually drove in to work, rather than ride a bike.) Not knowing that I watched their little heist, they marched in later to show me how smart they were- that they had come up with some caps on their own. I asked where, and they said they “found” them. So I asked if they had happened to “find” them on the pickup outside, and how the owner might feel about their “find”. They actually determined on their own that the truck must be mine and handed over the caps. I gave them a little lesson, and they appeared genuinely sorry. After they left, I went out to put the caps they gave me back on my pickup, only to discover that they gave me back the free plastic caps I had given them, as I had chrome caps originally on the truck. Little bastards…