The expensive shovel

Smitty's Rental was on the northwest side of Detroit for many years. I'm not sure how many, but I remember Smitty when I was still in high school and he only retired recently, so it was quite a few. One day he related a tale to me Pops which, when I think of it til yet, I shake my head in wonder.

A guy came in one day to rent a shovel. Just a regular spade shovel, like many of us have in our basements or garages. Smitty told him they rented for a buck a week or five dollars a month. He said he wanted it for a month, so Smitty took his credit card information, ran it, got his Lincoln deposited in the bank, and the guy left with the tool.

When he didn't return it at the end of the month, Smitty called him. He wanted it for another month. Having kept the card info as a hedge against thievery or breakage, a standard business practice in the rental trade, Smitty ran another month's rent.

That month passed and Smitty called again. The guy said run his card for a third month.

The next month came. Smitty called once more. After not getting a call back in several days, he ran the guy's card for a fourth month, and it went through. The same thing happened in the fifth and six months. In fact it continued for three years, five dollars a month, the card never rejected, until Smitty had collected $180 on that one spade shovel.

He quit running it at that point. "Bill," he told Pops, "I grossed $180 on one rent on a shovel that cost me ten. This after renting it to a few other people first. But it was my shovel, the fella quit calling back, and nobody ever complained." Smitty paused. "But a guy's gotta have a conscience, right, Bill?"

I understand Smitty's point. I just don't understand what the renter wanted with a $180 shovel.