It was Erev Pesach after the time of selling chametz (leavened products), and my wife asked me to do some last minute shopping at the new local supermarket. As I was lining up to pay, I noticed the man in front of me had three beer bottles amongst his purchases! "Oy vey!" I thought. How can this man be so ignorant? Doesn't he know that beer is chametz and therefore forbidden to buy for Pesach? Secondly, I was concerned that the supermarket was not taking seriously its sale of chametz. If they had really sold their chametz, how could they now sell it to this man? Once it was my turn to pay, I mentioned to the check-out clerk that beer is chametz and shouldn't be sold now.

Then she told me "the other side of the story." The man had not bought the beer, rather he was returning three empty beer bottles to get the deposit back on them. In case I was skeptical, she pulled out the three empty bottles from under her counter!