Men Never Learn

In the supermarket today I saw an elderly man with two boxes of cat food pouches under his arm, and an empty pouch in his hand, which he was scrutinising. The boxes he held were from this range, at two boxes for £6:

I love cats. I like to be helpful. So I asked him if he was trying to identify the box the pouch might have come from. He was. He obviously had strict instructions from someone as to which pouches to buy. "Did a neighbour ask you?" I said, "Or a friend?" No, he said, his wife. I looked at the pouch and identified it as being from this range, at two boxes for £7:

I pointed out where the boxes were that contained the food his wife had asked for. He hesitated. He pointed at a similar box, which was the same brand but for senior cats aged 7+. I asked him how old his cats were. He said 3 or 4. So I redirected him back to the food he needed. He kept hold of the Whiskas boxes. No matter what I said, he kept repeating that he thought he was going to buy those.

I did try to warn him that he was going to be in trouble with his wife if he didn't take home the right food. Still he dithered. I went on with my shopping.

Five minutes later, he was still dithering in front of the cat food.

I don't know which he finally bought, but I can imagine his wife's reaction if he went home with the Whiskas.