Lunacy or Loyalty?

In my local town we have an excellent shoe repairer, and I always get my shoes fixed there. This week I noticed that some stitching on my best black shoes was coming apart, so I dropped them in for fixing. As I handed them over, the cobbler noticed that the sole was coming adrift, and said he’d fix that as well. ‘Come back in 20 minutes’ he said.

I went off to finish the rest of my errands – the bank, the post office, a bit of shopping – and got back to the cobbler’s about 20 minutes later, and there they were, waiting on the counter for me. ‘Great!’ I said, ‘How much do I owe you?’

‘Don’t be silly,’ the cobbler said, ‘you always have your shoes mended here, there’s no charge for small jobs like that!’

On the face of it, that wasn’t very good business. I would have happily paid ten pounds or so to have my favourite shoes back in commission, so in the short term he lost that revenue. And I wouldn’t have thought badly of him if he had charged me – he did an excellent job.

But where do you think I’m taking my best brown shoes next week?