Popping into a convenience store one day, I collected all the stuff that I needed to buy and went to the cash counter to pay. However, as the store clerk computed my bill, I put my hand in my pocket to get out my money but there was none there. My husband had given me 10,000 yen that morning and I had slid the bill in my pocket, but I must have dropped it on my way.
"Sumimasen, iranai, gomennasai" was all I could in my limited Japanese, and I fled the store.
A couple of days later, shopping in the same convenience store, I collected my things and went to the cash counter to pay. A woman appeared from the staff room and asked me why I canceled my shopping the other day.
I explained in a blend of Japanese and English that I had lost "okane, ichi man en."
She slid her hand in her pocket and pulled out a 10,000 yen bill, which she explained I had dropped near the entrance of the store, and which a customer had handed in after I left. "Yokkata ne," was all the shopkeeper said as she totted up my bill. -- Muzammel in Tochigi
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