Sugar

The Angry Baker was in the office of his bakeshop. He was calculating the profits he made so far that summer.

“That is strange,” said Angry Baker. “It seems I made a lot more money last summer than this summer.”

Angry Baker scrutinized the journal entries in his ledger, one line at a time. The only thing he kept seeing several times was that he was being charged almost double this year than last for sugar.

“How could that be?” asked Angry Baker to himself, feeling himself becoming angrier and angrier by the minute. “I don’t understand how sugar prices could have increased so high without me knowing about it. I’m getting ripped off.”

Angry Baker picked up the phone and called his supplier.

“You are ripping me off,” said Angry Baker to the receptionist that answered the phone.

Angry Baker could feel his blood pressure soaring through the roof.

“I am sorry,” said the receptionist. “Our sugar prices have actually decreased from last year.”

“What do you mean?” screamed Angry Baker. “How come my books are showing that I am paying way more than last year at this time?”

“Let me look into that for you,” said the receptionist politely. “I will look into it for you and then call you back. In the meantime, we have a new program that could help you save a ton of money on the cost of sugar. What you do is purchase enough sugar to last the entire year all at once at the low rate and if you do that we keep the stock here until you need it. By the way, we would also give you an additional 10% discount, so you really would be saving a ton of money. It would work out that for the first six months your sugar costs would be high and for the last six months, you would pay absolutely nothing for sugar.”

“That sounds like a really good program,” said Angry Baker, calmly.

“Oh it will save you a fortune,” said the receptionist.

“Can I ask one question?” said Angry Baker.

“Yes of course,” said the receptionist.

“Why wasn’t I put on this program sooner?” screamed Angry Baker. “Not only are you ripping me off, you are also cheating me out of a ton of savings!”

Angry Baker was so angry that he slammed the telephone down and hung up on the receptionist. He also slammed his fist down on the desk, as hard as he could.

“I will find a new supplier for my sugar,” thought Angry Baker.

About an hour later, the phone rang.

“Hi,” said the voice on the other end of the phone.

“And what do you want?” screamed Angry Baker. “You want to rip me off too. Today seems like my day for getting ripped off!”

“Sir,” said the voice on the other end of the phone. “This is Melissa from the National Sugar Distributing Company. I looked into your order for sugar from us and you will be very happy to know that you had been on our Sugar Discounted Program for this past six months.”

“I have,” said Angry Baker, suddenly feeling complete embarrassment taking over. Angry Baker felt like a heel for the way he spoke to Melissa and for the thoughts he had about the National Sugar Distribution Company. “What exactly does that mean?”

“It means that for the next six months you do not pay a single penny for sugar,” said Melissa.

Angry Baker did a quick calculation in his head and he figured out that he saved well over $15,000.

“I wish to apologize for my outburst earlier,” said Angry Baker.

“I accept your apology,” said Melissa.

Angry Baker made Melissa huge black forest cake in apology for his bad behaviour earlier. When Melissa received the cake, she was thrilled. She called Angry Baker to thank him.

“That was very sweet of you,” said Melissa.

“You are welcome,” said Angry Baker.

“This cake is much too big for myself to eat,” said Melissa. “How would you like to come over for dinner and we can share it?”

“I would love to,” said Angry Baker, blushing.