The night manager said:
“I put the money in the safe.”
The morning manager said:
“It wasn’t there.”
Only managers could open the safe.
So one of them had to be lying…
RIGHT?
Not so fast.
Sometimes the person isn’t the first thing you should investigate.
Sometimes…
THE SYSTEM IS.
I remember working temporarily at a satellite location of a large restaurant chain.
I was only there for a few days helping out.
Then something happened that got everybody’s attention.
MONEY WAS MISSING.
Not petty cash.
Shift receipts.
The kind of money that should have been secured under a very controlled procedure.
And the problem seemed simple.
The night manager said:
“I deposited it.”
The morning manager said:
“It wasn’t there.”
Now we had a mystery.
WHO WAS TELLING THE TRUTH?
THE SYSTEM WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FOOLPROOF
The restaurant had procedures.
Money was collected.
Counted.
Bagged.
Deposited into a secure drop safe.
Once the deposit was made, ordinary employees were not supposed to be able to retrieve it.
Only authorized management had access to the safe.
At least…
THAT WAS THE ASSUMPTION.
So naturally, suspicion centered on management.
If the money went in…
And later disappeared…
Who else could have taken it?
TWO MEN UNDER SUSPICION
I knew both managers.
Both seemed responsible.
Both appeared credible.
That bothered me.
Why would either one jeopardize:
Their job.
Their reputation.
Their future with the company.
For one night’s receipts?
Yet the money was gone.
Somebody had an explanation.
ENTER THE INVESTIGATOR
The company employed its own investigator.
He interviewed people.
Reviewed the circumstances.
Asked questions.
Tried to determine:
WHO HAD ACCESS?
WHO HAD MOTIVE?
WHO WAS TELLING THE TRUTH?
Very reasonable.
But something about the whole situation still bothered me.
The investigation seemed to assume one very important thing.
THE SAFE COULD NOT BE THE PROBLEM.
I STARTED LOOKING AT THE SAFE
One day I went into the manager’s office and simply looked at the equipment.
Not because I had a grand theory.
I was curious.
The safe was heavy.
Built in.
Secure.
Designed specifically for deposits.
Then I started thinking:
What exactly happens after the deposit is made?
Could the system behave differently than everyone assumed?
SOMETHING DID NOT LOOK RIGHT
I examined the drop arrangement more closely.
And I discovered something surprising.
The deposit process did not protect the contents as completely as everyone believed.
Under certain circumstances, a deposited envelope could remain accessible through the deposit mechanism rather than falling completely beyond reach.
That changed the entire investigation.
WAIT A MINUTE
Now we no longer had:
ONLY TWO POSSIBLE PEOPLE.
We had a much larger question.
Who had been inside the office?
Who knew the weakness existed?
Who may have discovered it accidentally?
Who had enough opportunity?
Suddenly the safe itself had introduced reasonable doubt.
“THAT CAN’T BE DONE”
I contacted the company investigator.
I told him:
“You may have a bigger problem than the missing money.”
His first reaction was disbelief.
The system was designed specifically to prevent this.
I understood.
But design and reality are not always the same thing.
I demonstrated the weakness to management.
The response was basically:
WOW.
That one discovery changed the entire picture.
THE SYSTEM DESIGNED TO PROTECT THE MONEY WAS FLAWED
That was the real shock.
The company had built its security procedures around the belief that once the money entered the drop safe…
THE TRANSACTION WAS FINISHED.
Secure.
Untouchable.
But if that assumption was false…
Then every conclusion based upon it had to be reconsidered.
That is larger than a restaurant story.
BAD ASSUMPTIONS CREATE BAD INVESTIGATIONS
Think about it.
The reasoning had been:
Only managers can open the safe.
Money disappeared.
Therefore:
A manager took it.
Perfectly logical…
IF THE FIRST STATEMENT IS COMPLETELY TRUE.
Change the premise…
And the conclusion changes with it.
That is how dangerous assumptions can be.
RESULTS DON’T LIE… BUT THEY NEED INTERPRETATION
The result was obvious.
THE MONEY WAS GONE.
That part was not in dispute.
But results do not always tell you WHY something happened.
That requires investigation.
And if the investigation begins with a false assumption…
You may become very efficient at accusing the wrong person.
THE INVESTIGATION WIDENED
Now employees could not automatically be excluded.
Management could not automatically be blamed.
Everyone with legitimate access to the office had to be considered differently.
The case became much more complicated.
And perhaps more importantly…
The company now had a systems problem larger than one missing deposit.
ONE STORE… OR MANY?
This was a large restaurant chain.
That raised the obvious question.
If this equipment and procedure were standardized…
Was the vulnerability isolated?
Or was the same weakness present elsewhere?
Now one theft investigation had turned into:
A SECURITY-PROCESS QUESTION.
That tends to make corporations uncomfortable very quickly.
NOBODY CONFESSED
No one admitted taking the money.
No confession.
No definitive evidence.
Nothing that completely resolved the mystery.
The managers continued denying involvement.
Employees denied involvement.
The case remained murky.
And once the system weakness became known, certainty became much harder.
THE STIGMA REMAINED
This may have been the saddest part.
Even though the theft was not conclusively solved…
Suspicion followed people.
That is what accusations do.
Once somebody hears:
THEFT INVESTIGATION
the label can stay longer than the evidence.
That is why investigations need care.
Reputation is valuable.
You should not destroy it casually.
I RAN INTO ONE OF THE MANAGERS LATER
Some time later I saw one of the managers involved.
Naturally…
I asked.
“What happened?”
He maintained the same position:
“I deposited the money.”
I asked:
“Then where did it go?”
His answer was essentially:
“Ask the other manager.”
Interesting.
The other manager had said the same thing in reverse.
WHY NOT TAKE THE TEST?
At one point, investigators had asked people to take a polygraph examination.
One manager resisted.
That increased suspicion in some people’s minds.
Mine included.
I asked him:
“Why not take it?”
He said he did not believe he should have to prove he was innocent that way.
At first…
I became more suspicious.
THEN HE AGREED
A few days later, he agreed to the test.
He passed.
Now what?
The person I had begun to suspect had produced information that weakened my own theory.
That was another lesson.
BE CAREFUL HOW QUICKLY YOU FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR SUSPICION.
THE MYSTERY REMAINED
The missing money was never definitively explained to me.
Somebody knew.
But I did not.
And I learned to live with that.
What I DID know was more important:
THE SYSTEM WAS NOT WHAT EVERYBODY THOUGHT IT WAS.
That discovery changed what could responsibly be concluded about the people involved.
THE REAL LESSON
We love systems.
Policies.
Procedures.
Locks.
Rules.
Checklists.
Technology.
Why?
Because systems reduce uncertainty.
But eventually people can begin trusting the system so completely that they stop examining it.
Then when something fails…
They blame the operator.
Maybe the operator failed.
Maybe.
But first ask:
DID THE SYSTEM PERFORM AS DESIGNED?
That question can save people.
HUMAN ERROR OR SYSTEM ERROR?
This applies everywhere.
Restaurant.
Hospital.
Bank.
Construction site.
Airplane.
Office.
Family.
Business transaction.
When something goes wrong, there are usually several possibilities:
A person made a mistake.
A person acted dishonestly.
The procedure was unclear.
The equipment failed.
The system allowed the failure.
Or several things happened together.
Do not automatically choose the most emotionally satisfying explanation.
INVESTIGATE.
THE INVISIBLE FAILURE
A weak system can hide for years.
Why?
Because nothing happened yet.
Then one person discovers the weakness.
Maybe intentionally.
Maybe accidentally.
Now the failure becomes visible.
The problem may have existed long before the incident.
The incident simply exposed it.
DON’T CONFUSE SECURITY WITH THE APPEARANCE OF SECURITY
A large safe looks secure.
Heavy steel.
Combination lock.
Bolted down.
Impressive.
But security is not how something LOOKS.
Security is:
DOES THE ENTIRE PROCESS ACTUALLY PREVENT THE FAILURE WE THINK IT PREVENTS?
Different question.
The strongest lock in the world cannot rescue a poorly designed procedure surrounding it.
TEST THE SYSTEM
This is where businesses can learn.
Do not only ask:
“Does everybody follow the procedure?”
Ask:
“Can the procedure fail even when everybody follows it?”
That is a much better question.
Try to find the weakness BEFORE somebody else does.
DO NOT PUBLISH THE WEAKNESS BEFORE YOU FIX IT
Another lesson.
If you discover a security flaw…
Be responsible with it.
Do not broadcast the exact method publicly while the system remains vulnerable.
Tell the people who can fix it.
Document it.
Control access.
Correct the procedure.
Then communicate what people need to know.
Awareness without remediation can create another problem.
ASSUMPTIONS ARE EXPENSIVE
The company assumed:
SAFE = SECURE.
Investigators assumed:
ONLY MANAGERS COULD ACCESS THE MONEY.
People assumed:
REFUSING A TEST = GUILTY.
I assumed:
THE MANAGER’S RELUCTANCE MADE HIM LOOK RESPONSIBLE.
One by one…
Assumptions needed examination.
That may be the greatest lesson of the story.
FINAL THOUGHT
So who took the money?
I DON’T KNOW.
And sometimes that is the most honest answer available.
But I learned something more valuable than solving the mystery.
When reality does not match the story…
DO NOT FORCE REALITY TO FIT THE STORY.
Examine the story.
Examine the assumptions.
Examine the system.
Sometimes the missing piece is not the person you are blaming.
Sometimes…
THE FAILURE IS BUILT INTO THE PROCESS.
PEARLS INSIGHT
When losses or failures occur, investigators can become anchored to assumptions about how a system is supposed to work. If those assumptions are wrong, otherwise logical conclusions can point toward the wrong people. Effective problem solving examines both human behavior and system design, tests critical assumptions, avoids premature accusations, and distinguishes observed results from unproven explanations.
PEARLS FROM THE BOOKS
A recurring principle throughout Pearls for the Soul is:
RESULTS DON’T LIE.
But results still require interpretation.
The result tells you:
SOMETHING HAPPENED.
Wisdom asks:
WHY?
Do not fill the gap with the answer you prefer.
Investigate until the facts can carry the conclusion.
PEARLS CONNECTION
This Pearl connects directly with:
MY GREATEST FAILURE: DEFECTIVE THINKING… AND THE CURE
YOUR BLIND SIDE HIDES FROM YOU… BUT OTHERS CAN SEE IT
and
RESULTS IS A GOOD WAY TO KEEP SCORE
One warns us about assumptions.
One warns us about what we cannot see.
One tells us to respect the evidence.
Together:
SEE THE RESULT.
QUESTION THE ASSUMPTION.
TEST THE SYSTEM.
THEN DECIDE.
RICHIE SPEAKS
Money missing?
Fine.
Who took it?
Maybe that is not the first question.
Ask:
HOW COULD IT HAVE DISAPPEARED?
Big difference.
Everybody trusted the safe.
Until somebody actually tested the assumption.
And suddenly…
THE INVESTIGATION CHANGED.
Before you blame the person…
MAKE SURE THE SYSTEM DIDN’T FAIL FIRST.
FINAL SAY
The money was missing.
The mystery remained.
But one thing became clear:
A system can look foolproof…
Until reality proves otherwise.
Never become so confident in the procedure that you stop examining the procedure.
Because sometimes the biggest suspect in the room…
IS THE SYSTEM ITSELF.
— Richie
Pearls for the Soul
when you feed the soul, you feed everything.
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