I received an invoice today from the local toll highway company. It is for $0.01.

Yeah, it seems like I made an off-by-one-cent error in my last payment. So the company spends at least $0.52 (first-class postage), plus printing costs, to send me a notification about that penny. The entire ancestry of accountants is slowly rolling in their collective graves.

What next? Well, an unpaid bill apparently suffers interest at 27%/year. That would be a quarter of a cent of interest over the year – I could probably afford that much, considering the entertainment value. As the years drag on, imagine the company sending a monthly “you’re late on your ridiculously tiny bill” statement. According to Mathematica, it would take them almost 43 years — roughly my remaining lifetime, if I’m lucky — to break even considering the most basic costs of monthly billing all that time.

There is only one fly in this tasty ointment. The small print on the bill says that unpaid bills after 90 days are sent to a collection agency, with an extra “collection fee” added. I fear this undisclosed fee is not simply a small multiple of the charge. And, ooooooohhh scaaaaary, they threaten to put it onto my credit rating.

I hereby solicit advice about whether I should let my naughty side override the Morally Appropriate Behaviour Module, and wait 90 or even 9000 days, versus paying the lousy penny now.