Crying over spilt Snapple

Yesterday, I made a beverage delivery to a small local convenient store. In this particular place of business, not only am I responsible for said delivery, but also for pricing and placing the product up on the shelves. As I did this, I accidentally knocked a bottle of Snapple off the shelf, and it shattered. Being conscientious of the customers' safety, I immediately grabbed a mop, broom and a "Wet floor" sign and cleaned up the spill, and then completed the stocking of the beverages.
When everything was done, I went to get my copy of the invoice from the cashier. I had expected a "Thank you" for attending to the mess I had made. Instead, the cashier snapped, "What broke before?"
"A bottle of Snapple," I replied, adding, "I took care of it so you wouldn't need to worry about it."
"Well, are we going to get credited for that?" she demanded.
Patiently understanding that this was not a large operation, and that every cent counts, I offered, "I really don't want to take the time to go through all that bureaucracy. I'll just buy the bottle."
She looked at me indignantly. "I don't know if we can do that!"
I slowly explained, "It's an awful lot of trouble to call the office, get the unit cost on the bottle and alter all the paperwork. I'll buy it, and that way your inventory isn't affected."
Flabbergasted, she left the register and went into the back office to talk with the store manager. "He broke a bottle when he was stocking, and now he wants to buy it! Can we do that??"
The manager was equally dumbfounded. "I don't know," she replied. How much was broken?"
"One bottle," informed the cashier.
By now I was quite put out that this had become such a federal issue. I went back to the office and interrupted the pow-wow by saying, "What's the difference between my breaking a bottle and a customer purchasing it? I'm acting as a customer, wanting to buy a bottle of Snapple. What's the problem?"
Finally, the manager relented, "Well... OK, I guess. I suppose we can do that."

Yeah, tough choice. I'm willing to buy a bottle at retail price, giving you your profit margin while successfully maintaining your inventory, rather than calling up the office and tying up our accountant while she tries to figure out the cost of one lousy bottle.

...And Pat thought I wouldn't have any stupid stories to tell after I left my last job to take this one!