You Break It, You Buy It?

Hobby Lobby is like a china shop just tempting bulls to navigate gracefully through its aisles without shattering any of its kitschy gems. I fell victim to Hobby Lobby's glass delights today. Yes I identify myself as victim as opposed to perpetrator because 1. Hobby Lobby displays some of their most fragile items in the most precarious of positions (glass atop full displays made of what? glass) and 2. with almost half of their merchandise being breakable, the odds of breakage are stacked against the shopper. Despite these facts the incident in aisle 15 today became of full on moral dilemma.

The item in question: a set of 6 tiny decorative terra cotta pots wrapped in plastic. The incident: while perusing other breakables, the package that had been nestled cozily in the crick of my elbow, fell to the floor when I extended my arm while reaching for another item. It was more of a crunch that a crash as the broken pieces stayed contained inside of the loose packaging. Embarrassed by my fault and recognizing that others had been witnessed to the droppage, I made a heavy sigh and said aloud in a clear voice for all to hear, "Oh no!" I picked up my shattered terra cotta and played it cool for the next few minutes maintaining focus on the merchandise I had been looking at. I already made up my mind that I would exchange out this package of 6, yes all 6 broke, for an entirely new package. But I didn't want other shoppers to see me rush back to aisle 15 to swap out the damaged goods. After a lap around the store, I made the swap. I slyly put the broken package behind the unharmed sets and made my way to the register. I stood in line thinking, "This girl is going to restock this item, see the broken package, and remember me buying the good ones. She'll know. She'll be able to spot me next time I come in." The guilt was extremely out of proportion to the crime.

As I walked back to my car, the rationalizations began, "It only cost $2.17. They must have loss built into their annual budget what with all the fragile items they have in stock. I could have offered to pay for it, but I'm sure they would have told me not to worry about it. There were other broken ones too, not the whole package, but some." They were all just a bunch of excuses where I was trying to make myself feel better for 1. doing something crummy and 2. doing something maybe even crummier...covering up the first crummy thing. So what is the stance on this dilemma. Are we still living under the archaic policy of you break it, you buy it? What should I do with this guilt? Will I be struck down for my dishonesty? Was I actually dishonest about anything, or is a little breakage normal? Will this come back to me in a sort of karma way like I'll be victim to a hit and run? It's too much. I should have just forked out the extra $2.17 as atonement and ended the whole ordeal. Instead I'll carry around the burden of it till who knows when.