Shoppers put £187 in empty store's honesty box

A shopkeeper took a gamble on the honesty of festive shoppers by opening his store but leaving it unattended so that his staff could have Boxing Day off.

Tom Algie, 47, unlocked the doors of Practically Everything, his do-it-yourself shop in Settle, North Yorkshire, and put out a makeshift honesty box so that customers could help themselves. The only pressure to pay was a note attached to the box, made from a plastic funnel and a cereal box, wishing visitors a merry Christmas.

However, his first glance at the day's takings when he returned to the shop at 4.15pm on Boxing Day gave him concern that his confidence in the honesty of shoppers was misplaced. “I could only see one £5 note in the cereal box,” he said.


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“However, the long tube was stuffed with notes and change and, after a bit of vigorous shaking, the day's takings spilt out on to the kitchen table.”

The total was £187.66. A stock check showed that nothing had been stolen. “I didn't think twice about leaving the shop open,” Mr Algie said. “Settle is a lovely quiet rural town and there's never any trouble here. I put my faith in my customers and I wasn't disappointed.”

He said he was touched by notes left by customers. One read: “Thanks, Tom. This is why we moved to Settle. This shop would have been cleaned out in two and a half minutes in Bolton.” Another customer wrote: “I've just come from the centre of Manchester. I forgot just how lovely Settle is. This has made my day.” Mr Algie said: “It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. I wanted to spend the holidays with my family but thought it would be nice to open the shop so this seemed like a good solution.”