How Did Wayne Shortchange the Man in Bands of Mourning?

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

If someone could give me a play by play of how Wayne shortchanges the man in chapter 4 of Bands of Mourning, that would be great. I've gone over it so many times and I still can't figure it out.

Also, for future reference, would this topic go in Mistborn Discussion or Cosmere Q&A? I'm still trying to figure out where all of the questions go.

[Green Hoodie Mistborn he/him]

I don't think he did shortchange the man ultimately, he got 50 from the man and ended up giving 50 back. 

What he really did with all the confusing sleight of hand was get the man to give him the wallet for a flower, thinking he was selling it for 10. 

Similar to how he got the boat ride for free just by changing his accent to imply there was something fishy going on. That was much more of a shortchange than the scene with the actual exchange of different denomination of coins/notes. 

[Treamayne]

7 hours ago, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

Also, for future reference, would this topic go in Mistborn Discussion or Cosmere Q&A?

This kind of question can go in either location. Generally speaking, Q&A is for questions that should have a definitive answer (rather than theories) and the individual boards are for any kind of discussion. The idea being that others searching for their question first can search Q&A and easily find an answer that has been marked by the OP as "best answer" (which will make it display first - Mistborn Example) - though that relies on people using the forum search (which is explained in-depth in the Sharder FAQ)

7 hours ago, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

If someone could give me a play by play of how Wayne shortchanges the man in chapter 4 of Bands of Mourning, that would be great. I've gone over it so many times and I still can't figure it out.

Though Wayne does not actually short-change the man (see below) - the scene is a fictional representation of a real-world Con (also shown in movies like My Cousin Vinnie) where the person tries to quickly change pays and returns to get more back than paid (usually done as a customer, rather than vendor). In Theory, Brandon did not have Wayne actually take the extra money, because Wayne is about "trading, not stealing" (he just wanted to practice the Con). BoM Ch 4:

Spoiler

“Did you shortchange that man, Wayne?” Old Dent asked.

“What’s that?”

“You got him to give you fifty, and you gave him back forty.”

“What?” Wayne said, stuffing the wallet in his back pocket. “You know I can’t count that high, Dent. ’Sides, gave him ten extra at the end.”

“For his wallet.”

“Nah,” Wayne said. “The flower was for the wallet. The bill was ’cuz I somehow ended up with an extra ten completely on accident, very innocent-like.” 

Hope that helps

Edited February 21, 2025 by Treamayne
SPAG

[Duxredux he/him]

I don't know if there's a hard and fast rule, but if the question is likely to have a definitive answer then I would put it in the Q&A. The voting component of the Q&A will put the highest voted answer at the top and pull it completely out of the chronological context. If the question is speculative or likely to evoke discussion then I would put it in the discussion board where the back and forth dialogue makes sense. Lastly, since the Q&A board is full Cosmere and the responses are full Cosmere, a questioner trying to avoid spoilers might put the question in a series specific discussion board, though if posting in the Q&A they could include that they don't want spoilers outside of the book.

This one? I would probably put it in the Q&A, but that might just be me.

 

Since you asked for a step-by-step breakdown, here it is.

1. Customer buys 3 large pouches of potatos at 8 clips a pouch. Presumably pays the exact amount of 24 clips with a 20 and four 1s (see below). (24-24=0)
2. Wayne asks for 20 in change and hands the bill over. (-20)
3. Man gives two 5s and ten 1s. (-20+5+5+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1=0)
4. Wayne says he has plenty of 1s, and asks for another 10.  Hands 7 in coins over and takes the 10 (0+10-7=3)
5. Old Dent tells Wayne they have change in a box. Wayne asks for the 20 back and counts out 13 in exchange. (3+20-13=10)
6. Wayne offers to trade for the man's eelskin wallet for a flower and the "accidental" extra 10. (10-10=0) 

So yes, as others have concluded, if you ignore that Wayne tricked the guy into trading his wallet for a random flower, Old Dent's math that Wayne shortchanged the customer tracks out. Since the math gets us a net 0, presumably the man paid the exact amount for the 8 pouches of potatos totaling at 24 since we don't see a 1 or 6 in the 1s digit for change. Really, the tricky part is figuring out where Old Dent gets the 50 and 40 from, since Wayne got the guy to hand over I think 54 clips for a 24 clip purchase and gave back 20 in change before offering to trade 10 and flower for the wallet.

Edited February 21, 2025 by Duxredux

[+robardin he/him]

I have, once in my life, successfullly (and accidentally) pulled off the much more direct one-step "con" of contributing my cash share to a split dinner bill for a large party and saying to someone, "Hey, I gotta break this, do you have two 20s for a 10?" And actually got the person next to me to offer me two $20 bills for my $10.

He was a math professor at Johns Hopkins University, LOL.