The Cabbie and the Twenty

We flew back up to Chicago on Tuesday this week due to the Memorial Day weekend and as usual took a cab from Midway to the apartment. I handed the cabbie my corporate credit card and got out to get our bags out of the trunk and as I did, I spotted a folded-over twenty lying in the street soaked from the thunderstorm that was finally dying down. I palmed it while taking the bags to the sidewalk but it was too wet to put in my pocket. As I slid back into the back seat to sign the credit card slip, I heard the cabbie mumbling something about needing cash for gas. Now, sometimes I get cabbies that are really nasty about taking a credit card, but this didn't seem directed at me - more a self-beratement for not having a little more forethought. I looked at the $20 dripping in my hand and decided that while that was twice the tip that I had planned on, he could probably use it more than me.

He was one happy cabbie.