Times Must Be Tough

Our receptionist walked into my office with a sheepish look on her face. “Do you have four dollars and twenty-seven cents?”

Confused, and then sheepish myself, I said no. Not exact change, at least. Not even a five or a ten. “I don’t keep cash on me. Why do you need it?”

She explained that the mailman was waiting and someone didn’t pay enough postage. She then came in with the parcel in question. Here’s what I saw:

This wasn’t the occasional person not sticking on enough stamps. Or one of the less common but more creative people with cash-on-delivery tricks. Things must really be tough when the gubmint doesn’t have enough cash to pay its own postage, when the U.S. federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law shorts the postal service.

The mailman said it would be returned if we didn’t pay the deficiency, so we did the walk of shame from office to office asking for change. A subletting attorney’s mom had the money we needed. Down to the cent.

Probably not Brown & Little’s finest moment. Probably not the DOJ’s finest either.