Fuel Trick

I took this photo of a fuel pump at a gas station near my home. See if you can tell what’s wrong with the picture:

In case you missed it: in most gas stations in the US, 3 fuel grades are offered: 87 (“regular”), 89 (“extra”), and 91 (“premium”). Buttons will appear on the pump in either ascending, or descending order.

This guy rearranged the buttons on the pump (and I say “this guy” because I haven’t seen this anywhere else before, or since) so that the “premium” button is in the middle. A customer used to fueling “extra” (and hence, always hits the middle button) would just select a higher grade by mistake, providing the owner with 20-30 cents/gallon more.

This is what’s known in Hebrew as “kosher, but stinking” – it’s not illegal, but not the most ethical thing to do. So the tag “scam” may be out of place, but the closest I have for this.

And yes, I fell for this trick. Once.