What would you do if you were paying at the supermarket and, instead of the $5 that you were supposed to receive in change, the cashier accidentally gave you a $20? Would you correct the mistake? Would you keep it?
Now let's up the stakes just a little bit: What would you do if PayPal accidentally credited your account $92 quadrillion? Or more specifically, what if you opened your account to see that you had been given $92,233,720,368,547,800?
One man, Chris Reynolds, a 56-year-old man who sells auto parts on eBay, didn't have to think about it too long.
The Media, Pa., resident became both the world's first quadrillionaire and the richest man in the world for all of one minute, before logging into his account to find that his balance had already returned to the correct amount, $0.
"Well, initially I was a little jolted because I saw a negative number in front of a lot of digits and I just decided to have a little fun with it," Reynolds explained to ABC News, also telling the Philly Daily News, "At first I thought that I owed quadrillions. It was quite a big surprise."
Before this incident, Reynolds had only ever made "a little over $1,000" online, when he sold a set of vintage BMW tires. But losing $92 quadrillion dollars in one click of the mouse hasn't left Chris feeling bitter: "PayPal was really good," he says. "They apologized for any inconvenience."
PayPal issued a statement, explaining: "This was obviously an error and we appreciate that Mr. Reynolds understands this was the case." They also agreed to make a donation to the charity of Reynolds' choice (though probably not a quadrillion dollar donation).
So what would Reynolds do with a quadrillion dollars?
"I'm a very responsible guy," he said. "I would pay the national debt down first. Then I would buy the Phillies, if I could get a great price." Which would still leave him with quadrillions of dollars. Maybe go on a nice vacation?
Us? We would finally buy that pony we've always wanted.