Cheeto Karma

If my history teacher can explain Hindu principles with The Terminator, I can get away with talking about Cheeto Karma...

Today was The First Day of School. After a series of 20 minute classes, I had a free period and so did my friend who is also named Rebecca. We decided to go to the cafeteria and buy some food from the vending machines since we were both hungry. I almost never use vending machines, so I decided to wait for Rebecca to go first so I could watch the order that she pressed different buttons. However, while she was buying a bottle of water, a random guy came over and started using the vending machine.

After a while, he asked me for help. I answered that I almost never use vending machines so I didn't know what to do. He said he had put a dollar in and punched the number, but nothing happened.

I saw that on the vending machine it said $1.00 in one of those LCD things that lights up with words, labeled "Credit."

"Does this mean how much money you've put in?" I asked.

"I think it's how much the thing you want to buy costs," said Rebecca. "Try pushing the return change button," she suggested to the guy.

When the button was found to be stuck, we decided that it must've not registered his dollar. Forlornly, he left.

"I don't want to use that vending machine," Rebecca said to me. We decided to try another one on the other side of the cafeteria.

I put my three quarters for a bag of cheetos into the machine (which was identical to the other one), and noticed that it now said "0.75" in the box labeled credit. Aha, so I was right, I thought to myself. Which means...

I grabbed my bag of cheetos, and stepped aside so Rebecca could buy hers. "It probably doesn't accept fives," she said, as she put her five dollar bill in the slot. As she expected, the machine spit it back out. "Do you have change for a five?" she asked me.

"You don't need one," I said. "I have an idea." A bewildered Rebecca followed me across the cafeteria to the first vending machine.

"What's your idea?" she asked.

"Look," I said, pointing to the "credit" box that still said $1.00. There's one dollar in there. Now, the number for cheetos is 48..." I pressed 48, and waited a second. The machine dispensed a bag of cheetos, and I retrieved the extra 25 cents from the extra change spot.

"So it did register his dollar..." said Rebecca, figuring it all out.

As we walked along eating our cheetos, I asked, "Why is it that you're the one who gets the free cheetos, when it was my idea?"

"I could give you 75 cents," Rebecca offered.

"Yeah, but you who you really owe 75 cents is that guy," I responded.

"I suppose I could leave a dollar in the vending machine for the next person who comes, to set my karma straight," said Rebecca. "Maybe that person would leave money in return, and it would start a whole chain."

"So everyone gets a free bag of cheetos and then pays for one, and gets good karma?" I said. "Nothing changes except there's more good karma in the world."

"Exactly," said Rebecca. "And that means the world is a better place!"

-Rebecca

P.S. I would like to acknowledge that the colloquial use of the word karma is not quite the same as the Hindu concept, and I do not wish to imply that I know what I'm talking about. :)