Short story: When is a secondhand bookshop ever a library? Here it was!

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There was a man who owned a secondhand bookshop, and he had several staff working for him too. He had a problem with a member of staff, who used to "pinch" books from the shelves, and take them home with him to read, but he would return them, after he had read them. This presented a problem for Herman, as when a customer asked for a certain book, that he knew that he had in his stock, it was sometimes not now there, but it would mysteriously turn up again a week, or two later. Herman found this out eventually, from the other staff member, telling him what was happening, about the other guy "borrowing" books from him. He told his staff member that he could continue to do this, but to just write down a list of the books taken home, so that he will know where they are, if he is asked by someone in store, for that particular book. All went well after that, as Alan, the staff member, was religious in his writing accurately his list of books taken home for Herman, and from Herman’s point of view, a staff member who had read books, and could recommend them to potential buyers, was good for his store too. Herman could have stopped this practice, and reprimanded his staff member, but his conciliatory approach was a win-win for everyone here, for himself, his staff member, and for customers too. Such a win-win is possible in every situation. There really is no such thing as a lose-lose, or even a lose-win, or win-lose. A win-win always can be created when we look at the other person's position, with our hearts, rather than with the inflexibility of our minds. Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, freeimages.com A customer of Herman's looks hard for a book that was no longer there for now.