One day, an elderly woman went to the bank and asked to withdraw $500 from her account.
After listening to her request, the bank teller looked at her and said, “Ma’am, withdrawals of under $5,000 can only be done through an ATM.” Confused by this, the elderly woman asked why she could not just withdraw the money from the bank instead. The teller let out a sigh and began to get irritable. Instead of trying to politely explain this to the elderly woman, she handed her her card and coldly said, “Those are the rules. Now, please leave if you have no other questions or requests. There is a long queue behind you.” Unwilling to let this go, the woman slid her card back to the teller and said, “I do have another request. I would like to withdraw all of my money.”
The teller was shocked to see that the woman had $3 million in her account.
Seeing the large sum, the teller lowered her voice and changed her tone. Now, she respectfully whispered, “Ma’am, I cannot withdraw this much money as the bank does not have this much cash right now. Could you make an appointment and come back to collect your money at a later date?” Feeling determined to get what she wanted, the elderly woman asked how much money she could withdraw. After being told that she could withdraw any amount up to $300,000, she agreed to withdraw $300,000.
Politely and enthusiastically, the teller withdrew the money and handed them to the woman.
She handed $300,000 to the elderly woman, smiled politely, and asked, “Will that be all for today?” The elderly woman smiled back, put $500 in her wallet, and said, “No, I would like to deposit $299,500.”
Moral of the story: There is no need to be difficult and impatient with elderly people. At the end of the day, someone older and wiser can always outsmart you if they wanted to.