Are buses that difficult?

The other day a fellow worker tells me he has figured out the bus system.

Not that hard really, you get on give the driver some money or you use a travel card or link the travel card to your credit card (if you can get one). He was told the number of the bus to catch, and I am sure that he would have been told the cost. In fact, I am positive that he would have demanded to know the cost. This would be due to his preoccupation with the price of things and everything, for his wife, just being 'so expensive'. He also knew where and when to get off since he can easily see the dirty big buildings that are his workplace and home. So, I initially wasn't sure what the "I've figured out the bus system" comment actually meant.

Turns out that after nearly three months the fellow had been riding the bus for free every time he came and went from work to his apartment. Pretty silly since the neighborhood is a fish bowl, and everyone would see him get on and off the bus and know who he is and where he lived. I am sure he has been fuel for much gossip of late as a result.

Turns out, and I don't know if I can really believe it but ... He tells me that he didn't know how to pay the bus driver or how much to pay. In fact, thinking about it now, I don't believe it. So, each time he got on the bus he just sat down somewhere, and then got off at his stop.

He compared bus riding here to the place where he had just come from, but I am pretty sure you need to pay for bus rides there as well. Thrown into the conversation was the notion that his wife was promoting the idea of riding the bus for free, since she is so money conscious, and "everything is just so expensive!"

A couple of months into doing this he tells me that he offered the bus driver the equivalent of a $10 note (the fare is about a $1), but the driver shook his head and waved the note away. So, of course, my fellow worker just goes and sits down and takes another free bus ride. In my opinion the bus driver should have taken the money, as it would have helped pay for at least some of the previous free trips.

After three months odd, and I think now, he is paying the $1 fare when he travels by bus to work and home.

I really commend the patience of the bus driver and the other commuters, who would have seen him doing this each trip. I doubt the people in the place he just came from would be as patient or tolerant. From the stories he has told me about that place, and from what I have heard from others, I think they would have searched his pockets for cash and stopped him from disembarking until he paid for the ride.

There really is a big difference between being thrifty, being frugal, or just being inconsiderate.