By PEANDRA PRATT

FOR Tiffany Eldon, a 29-year-old clerk at The Linen Shop, the day started like any other when she opened the company safe to get out the bundle of $1 bills to make up the cashiers’ floats for business.

The company, like so many, changes money at various times throughout the week, so it was not unusual for her to pick up the bills. Except a few weeks ago, the bundle turned out to be a little different. And her actions on the surprising discovery earned her the praise of her shop colleagues, the gratitude of the Royal Bank of Canada branch where the Linen Shop banks and the relief of one particular teller.

Instead of a bundle of 100 $1 bills as expected, Ms Eldon found $100 bills instead. She nearly fell off her chair when she realised she was holding $10,000 rather than the $100 she was expecting.

Sue Pyfrom, the accountant at The Linen Shop, on Bay Street in downtown Nassau, had not noticed the bundle of $100 bills because of the way that the bundles were wrapped.

“Sue just assumed the bills were $1 bills so she just put them in the safe overnight as she always does,” Ms Eldon, who has been working at The Linen Shop full time for 12 years, told The Tribune.

The next morning, on discovering the higher denomination bills as she was making up the cashiers’ floats for the day, she immediately called Mrs Pyfrom at home to find out why there was so much money. “Sue thought that it was a wrong number as Tiffany was babbling on about $10,000,” said one colleague. “Anyway, they all soon realised that a massive mistake had been made, and Sue told her to go to the bank with the shop boy, Will, and give them the wrong bundle back.”

“I went to the bank immediately and gave them the money back,” Ms Eldon said. “The teller who gave them the money the day before came out and she hugged me. She said she had been up all night crying because she was short so much money. I didn’t want her to lose her job.”

Ms Eldon’s managers and co-workers were not surprised by her honesty and actions. The senior buyer at The Linen Shop, Gloria Raine, described her as “reliable and trustworthy”.

“Tiffany, and all of the staff here, are conscientious,” Mrs Raine said. “Tiffany is a long-standing employee who has taken on any facets within this business, from dealing with customers to managing the money. She’s a valuable employee and us allowing her to deal with the money shows that we have confidence in her.”

Royal Bank of Canada gave Ms Eldon a gift basket on Tuesday, thanking her for her honesty in bringing the $9,900 excess error to light.

Ms Eldon puts her honesty down to being a product of her character and upbringing. “Honesty was something I was raised on. My parents taught me a long time ago that if something doesn’t belong to me then give it back,” she said. “And I’m a Christian so I live my life every day trying to be honest.”