I lied to a regular customer that we discontinued his favorite pastry because he made our teenage cashier cry I work at a small bakery. Until a couple months ago we had this regular who came in every Tuesday morning, almost exactly at opening, to buy four lemon bars. He'd been coming for years. Everybody knew his order. Everybody also hated serving him. He complained constantly. If the box wasn't folded neatly enough he'd make us redo it. If the price went up he'd argue as if the person behind the register had personally decided that. He once made me count his change out twice because he didn't believe I'd given him the correct amount. One morning he came in while our newest cashier was working. She's 17, it was her second week, and she accidentally charged him for five bars instead of four. She immediately noticed, apologized and corrected it before taking his payment. He still went off on her. Asked whether they taught math at her school and said something about how nobody wants to work anymore because young people are idiots. She held it together until he left, then cried in the back. The following Tuesday I was opening alone. He walked in and asked for his usual. I told him we'd discontinued the lemon bars. We hadn't. There were six of them cooling on a rack behind me. He looked genuinely upset and asked why. I said they weren't selling well enough to justify making them anymore. He complained about how businesses always get rid of the good stuff and left without buying anything. He came back the next Tuesday to check. I told him the same thing. That was about two months ago. I haven't seen him since. We still make lemon bars every morning. They actually sell pretty well. I didn't tell my boss what I did. I know it wasn't my decision to make, and I deliberately lied to a paying customer because I personally wanted him gone. If he ever finds out, I could probably lose my job over it. But our new cashier doesn't flinch every time the door opens anymore. I'm not especially proud of lying. I'm also not sorry that I did it.