Stop! Thief!

Every morning my team and I go down for coffee together. I'm not a regular coffee drinker so I keep a stash of tea in my desk, pick out the flavour du jour, and take it down with me in my cup to fill up from the Hot Water carafe. A real tea drinker knows that her beverage should be steeped in water that came from a whistling kettle, not just steamy water from an over-sized Thermos or tap attached to a coffee machine. I make do.

Today I drained the carafe dry but did not fill my cup. I turned to the woman standing behind the counter of the coffee/pita/oatmeal establishment and asked for hot water. I waited for her to pick up my mug and take it to the hot water tap behind her, but instead she punched something on the till.

"Twenty-eight cents, please," she said.

"For just water?" I asked.

She nodded.

"Oh, no, no, I'm sorry. I didn't know, and I don't have any cash on me," I picked up my mug and walked away. I felt so embarrassed! For the last seven years I've had free hot and cold water at work. Hey, at the Cardboard Box Factory they even supplied the coffee, hot chocolate and iced tea mix. I didn't consider for a moment that someone would put a jug of hot water out on a counter and value it at 25 cents plus tax per unit. But then, as one of my colleagues pointed out when I relayed the story, who ever thought that we'd buy water out of a vending machine for a buck and a half a bottle?

So anyway, I've been thieving hot water from the Brodie Centre for almost a month now. I figure I've consumed $4.76 in un-paid-for water. Tomorrow I either pack dimes or a kettle.