What is comparable pay?

What if I don’t have money to pay for a cab?

• If I am riding the bus or a cab and I realize I don’t have money in my wallet and if they don’t take credit cards, what do they do? This includes any place where you pay after. Like if you are riding the bus, sometimes you pay when you get off, in a taxi cab you pay, and after you park, you pay to exit the lot and even in a restaurant when you get the bill, you pay after. So my question is what if you realize you don’t have any money to pay after you ride a taxi-cab or go to a restaurant? Would they call the cops on you? Its not like they will bill you and send you a bill to pay later so it will be an embarrassing situation and it will be already too late because of course they aren’t going to trust that you are going to pay or not. Or would a solution be giving them my watch or something valuable to hold until I come back and pay them? Like how would they trust me if I will come back or not to pay them if I cant give them something to hold for insurance?

• Answer:

  You should always be prepared to pay for such events. If you are not sure of the fare to where you are going ask the driver or the cab or bus company before you ride. If it is an emergency and you realize you don't have enough money to pay, for example if the fare is higher than they estimated, I would politely ask if you could go to the ATM and get some money to pay them if there is an ATM close by. You may also be able to request an IOU and they may bill you in some cases. As to calling the cops, I think they will only do that if you intended to steal versus an honest mistake.