The Biro Issue

So I was in a meeting today with some people I'd (mostly) not met before. Quite an important meeting, but not one where I needed to try hugely to impress. But on the other hand, I was keen to avoid looking like a complete doofus. I can save that for when they know me better. Anyway, I'd taken along my favoured meeting pen of choice, a 20p, work issue, Black Bic Crystal Biro, medium tip. It's a good workhorse of a pen. You know where you are with a Crystal Bic. And perhaps more importantly, you know when it's going to run out since you can see right through into the ink reservoir.

So near the start, one of the main guys, I'll call him J (since that's not his name - unless it is), spots I have a pen and that he has none, and then furthermore realises he needs a pen to write notes and can't, because he does not have a pen. Quite reasonably, he asks if he may borrow my pen. I say yes. It's just a black Bic, I'm not particularly attached to it in any way, it has no emotional resonance and it is in no sense a "lucky" pen. So I let J use my pen. I expect he was really grateful for this unexpected act of kindness, in fact, I could tell he was by the twinke in his smile.

I now didn't have a pen, but that's ok, I hadn't planned to write anything anyway. I'd only taken the pen along for appearances.

The meeting passes sucessfully.

At the end, I notice J has stuffed my biro into his filofax. This was not good as it put me in something of a dillemma. I could either

a) Ask for my biro back. Everyone would see me do this, and would think "My, what a cheapskate, asking for a 20p biro back. Surely he doesn't have any emotional attachment to a cheap pen like that one?". I would look like an utter cheapskate asking for my 20p biro back like that. Some people who may not have seen me lend the biro in the first place, might even suspect me of trying to con poor, dimwitted, J out of a pen he had brought along himself. Not that J is dimwitted. They just might think he was if he let himself be conned out of a biro in such an obvious way.

b) Pretend I hadn't noticed that J still had my pen, and let him close his filofax and walk away with my lovely possesion, albeit one that only cost 20p. If anyone noticed that this had happened, they'd no doubt think "My, what a weak spineless, unassertive boy he is! Why on earth didn't he ask for his own pen back?". And they'd be right, for surely J could not object to handing back an item he had unwittingly stolen. But in this scenario, he takes the pen and never even realises he's done wrong. I leave penless due to my spineless lack of assertiveness.

There was only a split second for all this to go through my mind. In this time I carefully weighed the options. a)... or... b)... or... a)... or... b)... or... and so on. I chose. I made my decision. Now I'd have to live with this decision for the rest of my life.

I said to J: "Can I have my pen back please?". He said "Ok" and passed me the pen. Nobody else was paying attention.

So I think that worked out alright.

Although I suspect J does think I'm a cheapskate for claiming back the 20p pen that he coveted.