Sales tax evasion prevented

My dear countrymen, bring out the nomination forms for the Good Citizen award. You have one in your midst and he is not shying away from receiving the acknowledgement for his good deeds.

You see, this guy and his parents went to a furniture store today, to buy a Dining Table. After identifying one that everyone in that family liked, the salesman got this family to the manager's desk to close out the deal.

The estimate was provided as Rs.20,600. Our hero tried his best at negotiating a good deal. The manager gave the usual sales pitch about the quality of his products. How he doesn't hike up prices and then offer a discount. etc. etc.

While all that may very well be true, our nominee wanted some discount. The manager thought for sometime. Did some fundoo calculations. And came out with an offer. He said that he could close the deal for Rs.20,085, but there were certain terms and conditions.

First, 20% of this amount (around 4K) would have to be given as cash. The balance 16K, could be paid using a credit card. Also, the shop would give a bill only for the 16K that was swiped and not for the full amount of 20K.

Our friend thought about it and understood where the store manager was headed toward. And to make things clear, the manager himself categorically said that to accommodate the customer's request, he would have to avoid getting taxed at some level.

This is where any average person would have taken the bait for saving Rs.500 and accepted the offer. And this is where our friend differs from the average citizen. He decided on the spot that he couldn't let the Government lose out on sales tax for 4K. He told the manager that he didn't want that option and in stead requested him to make the bill as Rs.20,500.

Don't you think our hero our hero deserves at least a round of applause for the sacrifice that he has made?

And in case you still didn't realise, till this point in this article, I was referring to myself in the third person.