Page 80 - A Banker Down the Rabbit Hole
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23. Recovering excess cash paid
T he Head Cashier reported after business hours one day that
there was excess payment of Rs.1000/- made to a customer
and the cash was short. This amount was equivalent to his
salary for about 3 weeks then and he seemed to be so much
worried. He had traced that he made excess payment of this amount to
one customer Vikram Singh of a particular locality.
He wanted to go and confront him and demand this excess amount from
him. I knew that our Head cashier was hot headed. Moreover, the bank
cannot easily level the charge against a customer that only he got the
excess cash. The detail of the notes of various denominations paid was
made by the cashier himself and not the customer which could be
questioned by him if he does not want to pay back. It was a question of
challenging the integrity of a well-known customer. The locality of
customer was sensitive as we had several respectable depositors there.
I asked him to accompany me and he should keep quiet all through the
process and let me handle the issue my own way.
We reached the locality and approached another valued customer. I
confided in him that cashier had by mistake made excess payment. As
per our details of denominations of notes given and recorded on backside
of the cheque, he paid Rs. 21,000/- instead of Rs. 20,000/- and excess
payment of Rs. 1000 had gone to Vikram Singh of their locality. We asked
him about the nature and reputation of the person and possibility of
return of this excess amount, if we requested. He told that his reputation
was pretty bad and he did not see any chance of recovery and he might
become aggressive if straight away charged with taking excess cash
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