The Thriftiness of the Rich

I'm a fundraiser. One consistent pattern I've experienced is how cheap the rich are. They nitpick over charges to their hotel rooms at our events. Donors have me send them books and other swag for free even though they should pay. They make me (a young person working for a nonprofit) pick up the tab for meals. And then today...

This morning, I was excited to see we got an envelope from a particular millionaire we've been courting. I excitedly opened it only to find a few receipts along with a small handwritten note addressed to some company requesting a $25 refund. This was accidentally sent to us because he used a reply envelope we had sent him in our most recent solicitation - the post office failed to notice he crossed of our pre-printed name and hand wrote a new address. So here's a millionaire too cheap to use his own envelope, scrounging for a $25 rebate, and who didn't value his own time enough to bother a secretary with this cheap, mundane task. Fascinating!