Quite a few years ago I was a bartender in a small town on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My girlfriend (who is my wife now) went to Dover for a NASCAR race. While I was working in the bar all alone she phoned me asking me to wire her some money as soon as possible.

I didn't see how that would be possible because I working alone and by the time I finished work all the banks would have been closed. Of course, I tried to explain that to my girlfriend but she told me that I badly needed to wire her some money because if I didn't she wouldn't be able to make it home.

It wouldn't have happened like that if she hadn't forgotten her credit cards and ATM card. She noticed she had not taken them when she tried to buy some food at a store while travelling. She had some cash but not enough for the whole trip. Thus, my girlfriend desperately needed money. What made the things so worse was the fact that she couldn't find her friends either.

I wouldn't be surprised if this happened now but back then I was stunned that she could have forgotten her credit cards and bank card as well. When we finished talking on the phone the bar was full of people wanting to have a drink. And of course, on top of everything this was a Saturday evening.

Things were getting worse because even if the next bartender came earlier I couldn't leave her alone with so many customers. I didn't really see how I could leave my post to wire money to my girlfriend. She had no other choice but to wait until I finished work. I got really lucky because we were friends with some of the regular customers and one very nice guy offered to wire money to my girlfriend instead of me.

I was relieved that I had found a way out of this complicated situation. However, even though this man seemed very kind, he was quite thick and little slow. I thought that such a task would be quite confusing to him. But it is not like I had any other options, so I gave him the cash and hoped everything will be fine and he will manage to wire money to my girlfriend in time.

A few hours passed and I thought everything was okay but it wasn't. My girlfriend called in a panic. She said there was no money. I assured him that money was sent because I had the receipt. When he checked again, I carefully examined the receipt and I saw that the recipient was the person I sent to wire the money, instead of the sender.

I wished I didn't have to tell either of them about this but I had no other choice. I carefully explained what had happened to our friend. He immediately went out again to correct his mistake. That time he wired the money double-checking who is sending and who is receiving it. Of course, everything was fine in the end. These things can happen to anyone.