Instant Karma

The justice of universal karma extends its mighty grasp even as far as a simple vending machine, I've found today. So, I put a dollar into this vending machine so that I could get some Doritos to snack on at work, and the corner of the bag got stuck, so it wouldn't drop down. That always sucks. So, I was a little irritated (moreso because I was hungry than that I had lost a bit of money). So, I put in another dollar so that I might have two bags. The first dropped down, but the second one also got stuck. "Oh well," I thought, "at least I got one."

After pushing the change button, however (since the chips cost 80 cents, not a dollar) I actually got two dimes and one of those coin dollars. "Hey!" I thought. "How did it know?" The change compensated exactly for my trapped chips. Haha.

I do find it cool that vending machines can tell the difference between American and Canadian quarters, as well as American quarters from before 1965...so, I tend to call them clever. Of course, I realize that the coins are likely weighed (simple enough). So, this "sophistication" begs the question: Did the machine give me an extra dollar in change because it recognized that it did not deliver its product? Or, did the machine have an odd malfunction in issuing its change, that just happened to exactly compensate for my loss? It boggles the mind!!