According to this article in the Globe & Mail this morning, a 27 year-old single mother was fired from Tim Horton's for giving a free Timbit to a toddler. And now Timmy's has a whole whack of negative press...all over 16 cents. Brilliant! Yes, stealing is stealing. But, it was a Timbit, not a $20 from the till, and the article even states that Tim's routinely gives free Timbits to pets, which is why the woman assumed that it would be OK to give one to the baby of a regular customer, who had been having a bad day. She was later called into a meeting with three managers, including the district manager, and fired.

Last night, I was at a local street festival where there was a stand selling mini donuts. I try to eat well, but a mini donut will win me over every time, so we stood in line to get a few to snack on while we wandered through the stalls and watched the entertainment. In front of us in line was a little girl, probably no more than 4 or 5 years old. I'd actually assumed that she had been with the woman ahead of her because she was so tiny, but that woman got her donuts and left and the little one was still standing there. The guy selling the donuts asked her what she wanted and she said that she wanted some donuts, please. He filled a little bag for her, sprinkled them with brown sugar, and sent her on her way. She didn't pay for them, and there didn't seem to be any responsible adult standing around waiting for her, so the guy just shrugged, smiled, and asked us what we wanted. Were we annoyed about having to pay for our donuts, when she didn't have to pay for hers? Of course not. And, these donuts were $2.50, not $0.16. In fact, watching the whole transaction between the guy and the little girl only made me make a mental note to myself to choose this donut stand over the competition the next time around. It's obviously run by human beings.

Let's hope the publicity leads to another opportunity for this woman, and to the firing of the terrible management team who made this decision.