Tim was a young, ambitious middle manager in a large retail outlet. He had joined the store as a graduate management trainee and quickly risen through the ranks to become an assistant departmental manager. He was confident and cocky, spoke with assurance and was always smartly turned out. He was careful to hide his occasional mistakes and had the happy knack of always looking busy – even when he wasn’t.

Tim was assistant manager in the carpet department. Previously he had held an equivalent position in the bedding department, but had quickly fallen out of favour with his boss. There seemed to be two interrelated problems. Firstly, Tim tended to be arrogant and to treat his boss with disdain and, secondly, his boss found him inappropriately flippant. He complained that Tim made up for his superficial knowledge of beds, particularly mattresses, by telling customers half-truths and downright lies. Tim’s boss was a dour Scot and, not normally demonstrative, he had flown into a rage when he caught Tim bouncing up and down on a bed with a couple who were engaged to be married. Tim claimed it was a brilliant way to test the bed prior to what he imagined would be bouts of energetic love-making. Tim received an official reprimand and was transferred side-ways to the carpet department.

Unfortunately, Tim’s new manager, Neil, didn’t rate Tim any more highly. Both managers were good friends and they compared notes about Tim’s carefree style. Neil had not had the advantage of a university education and was exceedingly envious of Tim’s graduate status and very irritated by his misplaced confidence.

Neil would seize every opportunity to cut Tim down to size. But somehow Tim, with his cheerful demeanour and ability to speak persuasively, always managed to emerge unscathed from Neil’s spoiling tactics. This, of course, only served to further antagonise Neil.

One day, Tim was serving a customer – a woman in her early seventies who had spent a long time rummaging through piles of small rugs of different qualities. The rugs were sorted into piles depending on the quality and price. Tim had already greeted the customer and asked if he could help, but she had said she was ‘just looking’ so Tim had withdrawn to allow her to examine the rugs at her leisure.

After waiting a reasonable time, Tim approached the customer again and this time she was ready for his assistance. She had selected a rug that she very much liked but explained that she couldn’t pay for it until Thursday when she received her next pension payment. Tim decided to put the rug aside for her and explained that he would put it back in stock if she failed to appear by 17.00 on Thursday.

Thursday came and so did the customer, with exactly the right amount in her handbag. Tim got the rug out to show her again before processing the order. It was only then that he noticed that the label on the back was for £8 more than the customer had been led to believe. Clearly the rug had mistakenly been allocated to the wrong pile. Tim made an instant decision; he would conceal the truth from the customer and let her have the rug for the price she was expecting.

Tim removed the label from the back of the rug and slipped it into his pocket. He made out the invoice for the lesser amount and the customer went off happily. Once she had gone, he tore up the offending label and dropped the pieces in the bin next to his desk. He gave the matter no further thought and went off on his lunch break.

When he returned, he was summoned to Neil’s office. The personnel director was there looking grave. On Neil’s desk was the label, which had been retrieved from the bin and carefully reassembled with adhesive tape. Beside it was a copy of the invoice Tim had made out for £8 less. An explanation was demanded. Tim told them the full story but, despite his protests, he was dismissed on the spot for cheating the company out of £8.

Neil, and his close colleague in the bedding department, went out for a celebratory drink that evening. They were delighted to have rid themselves of another graduate who, in their view, was a damn sight too big for his boots.