Counting Change: A Sweet Lesson on Confidence, Calculation, and the Power of Simplicity

Recently, I went to a local sweet shop in my city. A shopkeeper stood behind the counter, tasked with packing sweets and delivering them to customers. But with no cashier in sight, he was left to tally up the total and handle the money too. That’s where things got interesting.

After totaling my bill three times, he still made the same mistake each time. I noticed he wasn’t reaching for the calculator at any point, even though it would have made things easier. And it dawned on me: he didn’t know how to use it. Yet, he pressed on, confident that his mental math would carry him through. Ultimately, he added an extra rupee to the total and declared it correct.

A senior employee stepped in, maybe sensing the struggle. Surprisingly, he didn’t reach for the calculator either, despite coming up with the same one-rupee discrepancy. Finally, I did the math myself and gave them the accurate total.

This scene reminded me of a similar instance in a grocery store. There, an assistant carefully wrote down each item and the price on a long slip of paper and calculated the total price but was never trusted to handle payments. When the owner received the money, he’d double- and triple-check the math on his calculator, swiftly tapping the buttons with practiced speed. He often repeated the calculation just to be sure.

What struck me from these observations was this: we don’t need all the tools or know every method to perform our work well. Sometimes, working with what you know and using your mind to solve simple problems can be a rewarding exercise. And, of course, when you do have tools like a calculator, using them without hesitation and double-checking can be an invaluable practice, ensuring both speed and accuracy.

In the end, it’s not just about getting the numbers right—it’s about the confidence and methods that bring us there.

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