Mr. Stupid Does The Right Thing

It's 2007 and my family and I are enjoying wonderful vacation in Puerto Vallarta, Mexcio.  Great weather and so relaxing. It's Christmas Eve, which happens to be my oldest daughter's birthday so we want to make a special night of it. We go out for a really nice dinner and we're walking back to our hotel. Well, along the street with all the cars, buses and taxis is a horse drawn carriage.  Now this isn't the type of carriage you might find in the streets of Chicago or New York but it is a horse drawn carriage. The carriage is pretty open(two padded benches and no doors) with balloons all over it and a nice old Mexican man driving what looks like the horse that came in last in the El Kentuckyio Derby.  We decide what the heck, let's go for it.  So my family gets on this equestrian deathtrap for a little ride. The carriage is going about 3 miles per hour and we couldn't be having more fun taking pictures and laughing the entire time. The carriage gets to our hotel and its time to end this ride. My wife and daughters get off and its time to pay the man. He says 150 pesos(about $15) and I ask if he will take American dollars(That night I happen to only have dollars and no pesos on me). The nice old man said "Si".  So proceed to give him $1.50 (oddly, I can typically figure out my commission on a complex deal at work in my head while I'm talking to a client but for some reason I couldn't figure our that it was $1 for every 10 pesos).  He says "Senor, it's 150 pesos which is $15."  I reply "No, 150 pesos is $1.50"  To his credit the man stayed calm and said again" Senor, 150 pesos is $15" and I again replied "no, it's $1.50" This went on for about 10 minutes until the man finally said very dejectedly "OK, Senor, $1.50. No problemo" and off he went.  I walk into a shop where my wife and daughters where and say to my wife "that guy tried to rip me off. He kept telling me 150 pesos was $15" My wife looks at me and says "You moron! 150 pesos is $15. You ripped him off!"  I felt terrible. I just gave this guy 10% of what I should've paid him. My wife says "What can you do? He's probably 5 blocks away by now" I replied "I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to pay him what I owe him. Hold my sandals." I take off my sandals and take off. I'm running as fast as I can down a busy sidewalk with tourist, locals and whoever else was out that night. I mean I'm flying. My wife must be thinking, he's either going to get hit by a car (Mexican traffic is a cross between New York rush hour and a demolition derby) or he's going to get arrested because he's running like he stole something(I wouldn't do well in a U.S. jail, can you imagine me in a Mexican jail?). I finally catch up to my man on the carriage and out of breath I say "Senor, lo siento, lo siento" (Translation-I'm sorry, I'm sorry)and not only paid him the $15 but I added $5 for his inconvenience and my stupidity. He was shocked but replied" Gracias Senor" and then I replied back "No Senor, lo siento".  I walked back to my family barefoot and dripping in sweat. My wife,never feeling the need to candy coat with me, says "You're really a nice man and you're really an idiot." .