20 cents in 22 years
Tungnath Chaturvedi , a lawyer from India, was reportedly made to pay the extra 25 cents at the Mathura cantonment railway station in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, where he lives. At the time, he was purchasing two tickets to travel from the city of Mathura to Moradabad which cost 35 rupees each. Chaturvedi handed over 100 rupee bill, but the clerk at the station returned only 10 rupees ($0.12), charging the lawyer a total of 90 rupees instead of 70. Chaturvedi immediately complained about having been overcharged, but he wasn’t offered a refund at the time. So, he decided to file a complaint against the North East Railway (Gorakhpur), and the booking clerk involved in the incident at a consumer court in Mathura. Consumer courts are notoriously slow in India, due to the large number of cases brought forward every year. “The railways also tried to dismiss the case, saying complaints against the railways should be addressed to a railway tribunal and not a consumer court,” Chaturvedi told the BBC. “But we used a 2021 Supreme Court ruling to prove that the matter could be heard in a consumer court.”
The case started in 1999. He has attended more than 100 hearings in connection with the case, “but you can’t put a price on the energy and time I’ve lost fighting this case.” It took Chaturvedi 22 years to see his case through. The railway company was ordered to pay the man a fine of 15,000 rupees as well as refund Chaturvedi the extra $0.25 at 12 percent interest per year, from 1999 to 2022.The railway was given 30 days to pay the amount to Chaturvedi, beyond which the sum will be revised to an extra 15 percent interest rate. But he added: ‘This was always about a fight for justice and a fight against corruption, so it was worth it.’ That brings the railroaded passenger’s overall payback to about $188, 22 years later.
Cheap laughs
A sleazy house painter gets a contract to paint a rectory. Being a cheapskate he is, he stirs water into the paint to save a buck. The painter hastily slaps the paint onto the rectory, and right as he applies the last stroke, the weather, which had been perfectly clear and sunny, instantly goes dark, and a torrential rain pours down. The cheap paint instantly washes away with the deluge, and the painter, furious with the turn of luck falls to his knees and shakes his fists to the sky.
“WHY GOD, WHY?” He shouts.
An earthshaking voice booms in response “REPAINT, REPAINT: THIN NO MORE.”
“Welcome to Cheapskates Anonymous, would anybody like to start?”
“I’d like to say that I’m not a cheapskate. I’m just here for the free coffee.”
Misers make wonderful ancestors.
“You’re a cheapskate.” said the girl at the bar.
“But I just got you a drink!” I replied in shock.
She said, “But with two straws…”
August 19th Birthdays
1953 – Mary Matalin, 1965 – Kyra Sedgwick, 1984 – Tammin Sursak, 1986 – Christina Perri
1964 – John Stamos, 1942 – Fred Thompson, 1985 – Simon Byrd, 1989 – Kirk Cousins