Honor the System

I drove to Cambridge today for the express purpose of buying a cheesecake baked by The Nuns of New Skete.  I read that their energy efficient kitchen can bake 400 cakes a session, and that they bake 1 or 2 days a week for about 37 weeks out of the year.  That's a lot of cheesecakes, so I figured they'd have some in stock and they certainly did.  There were cars parked in front of the building on Ash Grove Road, but not a person in sight.  You enter the doorway that a sign marks as the gift shop and there in the vestibule is a large cooler filled with the cheesecakes and other cheese spreads.  There are jars of jam and jellies and fruitcakes and pancake mixes and other items on shelves around the room.  Not a person in sight though.  Each item is marked with the selling price and you are instructed to choose your item and slide cash or a check through a slot in the locked doorway . How quaint, and trusting, I thought, the honor system.  But reading further---there are lots of signage with instructions posted around the room----your eye falls upon another sign advising that cameras are present, because unfortunately, some people took items without paying for them.  I slid my check into the slot and hoped my hair didn't look too bad for the invisible camera.