There are a few coffee/tea/vending machines - CVM in short, in the Academy-Mussorie. These CVMs have slots for certain tokens that one could to get for five rupees. These 5-rupee tokens would make one eligible for a cup of coffee etc. But the speciality of these CVMs is that these can be operated even without these specific tokens.(Unfortunately, I relised this only during the fag end of our Course there) This is by inserting any one Rupee, 50 paise or even 25 paise coin in the slot, instead of the 5-rupee CVM token. These CVMs are so intelligently designed!
I would have hardly taken four or five cups of Re.1 coffee when a friend disturbed me with some ethical lessons. He (not she) said that i was doing something immoral, cheating the CVM owner grossly. (i was paying at max only one fourth of the actual) As i was anticipating this issue to crop up some time or the other i did not have any difficulty in quickly countering this with my ready-made defence.
My primary line of defence is that it is purely the owner/designer/operator's job to ensure such glaring design flaws are rectified - after all the whole business runs around these tokens. It is also very obvious that these guys are well aware of this loophole, as the CVMs are opened on a daily basis to recycle the tokens and for accounting purposes. So if someone can be so very careless about his/her interests - probably due to sheer laziness - why should someone else be branded unethical?
In turn, I was posed with hard questions like - Is it ethical to takeaway items from an unmanned, open shop? Will you consider it ethical if someone picks your mobile phone while you are looking the other side? etc.
Need your help. Can I advise my friends in Mussourie not to waste Rs.5 for a cup of coffee or should I send a DD for Rs.16 (Rupees sixteen only) to the CVM operator?
14 comments:
There is just no excuse for not sending the money to the CVM operator. I don't see what the ethical 'dilemma' here is ...
The CVM operator's behaviour -- that he has not bothered to correct the problem with the machine -- is easily explained. Either it's too costly, or he may not want to antogonize the mighty IAS lobby -- which may also prove to be very costly!
Oh...like that!
My point is for a company like Nestle, why is it too costly to take care of a very basic design feature? And it does not have anything to do with the lobby also, as on a bigger level - the whole thing is run by the Officers' mess!
Thanks Abi!
For the sin you have committed, you have to spend Rs 16000...... go to Kasi......take a dip in the ganges..... and send me DD of Rs 116
Dei... let's see it in the perspective of Expectation/Action. CVM's E is 5 INR. But your A doesn't match. Your E is Coffee worth 5 INR. Does it match with the CVM's A? So we have any Third Party that monitors the transaction between the two? If yes, what is its E/A? Do you satisfy the E/A? If you do, then it's fine. If you don't is there any backlash from either the CVM or the Third Party? If yes, I suggest use 5 INR and pay the unpaid with the penalty. If No, forget about it, Enjoy and let me know the make of the Designer CVM. I will try to get one in my office cafeteria:-)
My stance: the other guy is not correct, you are not wrong - one has freedom only till the tip of other's nose not to touch it. So if he has principles so be it, if you feel ok about it so be it.
But coming to what i would have done and why? I would have exploited the arbitrage opportunity of the faulty machine and used it... when it hurts the CVM owner he will fix it, if it doesn't hurt him - its a win-win situation.
You need not be ethical in exploiting a loophole, if thats the case there wont be lawyers, accountants or bankers. you can't create fundamentally flawed regulatory system and expect others to be "ethical".... that's stupid...
If you feel convinced send me the DD of 16rs so that i can encash it!
naalu (4) perukku nallatha eruntha ethuvume thappu illai -:)
Ithu eppidi erukku...
@Cosmic Voices: dei....cosmikku...romba overa pora nee..!!
@Muthuvel: I will definitely recommend the authorities higher up to make you the third party da....it will be useful for the country in general.
@Siva: Am wih you/You are with me! Please wait for the DD!
[But generally am not comfortable with the work of criminal lawayers da...i really dont know how can someone defend a person, even after knowing very well that she has murdered someone!]
@Karthik: Appo...neenga nallavara kettavara? [bgm: tun ta-tun ta-tun ta-tun....tatataaan....]
dei mama..rules and ethics are created by mankind. Who defines right or wrong or ethical or unethical, in a way ethics is similar to culture. There are different cultures..so is ethics..whose culture is right..it seems in some places of South America its rude to go to an appoinment in time..whereas in Germany its rude if you dont go to an appoinment in time..
So the bottom line is dont worry about INR 16/.
BTW Ethics in a coffee cup is a good blogging topic..nothing is more interesting than talking about ulaga gyayam(worldly rights and wrongs...he he he)
@ Karthik & @ Sundar's reply to him..
LOL... :-)
I have one little question(as always). Why have you used small 'í' and not the capital "I" while writing this blog. Is it because uyou just want to show that you are too small in the bigger scheme of things. If so, then no ethical questions arise because it does not matter much.
By the way this fad for small í was started by the TOI editors without taking into account opposition of small I's like me.
@Jey: dei mama..you are fit for an MBA degree! You can improve your cofusing-skills if you take a formal degree.
@Shatru: Sorry sIr, I wIll be usIng only bIg 'I's In my lIfe from now, I promIse!
Just think that you consumed 4-5 coffees at a discounted rate. But don't repeat this.
enna le chirupillathanamaa irukku??
Good for people to know.
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