True Tales: The Jewelry Test Drive

The customer opened the jewelry box and found nothing inside. Except for a short, but thrilling, note.A woman came in looking for an anniversary gift. She liked some opal pieces and asked to look more closely at a pendant and opal earrings. She left, saying she would try to get her husband to come in and look at them. My wife, Georgiann, figured that she was having trouble getting her husband to come in, so she suggested the customer take the earrings out for a ?test drive?. “See if he notices,” she said. The customer was pleased and went out of the store wearing them. Just two hours later, the husband came in asking if someone knew which of the pieces — the pendant or earrings — his wife preferred. Georgiann laughed and told him the story of the “test drive”. He laughed and asked what he should do, since he couldn’t give her what she was wearing … and he couldn’t afford both. Georgiann told him: “I’ll wrap a box and we’ll let her think you picked up something else. But just so it’s not empty, I’ll include a note.” He loved the idea, paid for the earrings and went out of the store smiling broadly. I asked my wife what was on the note. She said she had written “Test drive over. They’re yours.”
 
CHARLES B., EUGENE, OR