An altercation on Princes Street

I was on Princes Street a couple of months ago, when I saw this bloke casually take a final sip from his cup of coffee, then casually discard his cup.  That sort of thing enrages me.  One minute the cup has value and the next minute it has none.  The hand opens, the cup drops and the guy doesn't even break stride.  It's discarded.  It's probably even discarded from his memory.  Well, I was having none of it.

I called out to him and pointed out the nearest bin that was less then six feet away.  He looked startled, then looked guilty and kept on walking.  I was gratified by the look of guilt, but I wasn't satisfied.  I picked up his cup (still half full - he couldn't even be bothered finishing his coffee) and followed him along Princes Street.  By now I was going out of my way - figuratively and literally.  I was determined to prove my point and I was heading in the opposite direction from the way I had originally been headed.

The guy put his head down, hunched up his shoulders and kept on walking.  He was actively trying to pretend I didn't exist.

I changed tack and started walking faster.  I overtook him, but he was focused on the ground immediately ahead of him, so wasn't aware of this.  I found a bin on the corner of Hanover Street and poised by it with the cup in my hand, waiting for him to catch up.  By the time he did so, I could see that he was starting to relax again; no doubt thinking he had left me behind.

As he got close, I could tell by his approach that he intended to continue walking along Princes Street.  I shouted at him - loud enough to catch the attention of several other people, but I didn't care.  He looked at me, clearly startled all over again and I dropped the cup directly into the bin.  "See?  That's all you had to do," I said.  He hunched his shoulders up again and executed a sharp right turn onto Hanover Street.  I let him go, at that point.  There's a fine line between going out of my way to righteously stress a point and being a bit of a looney - and I think I had become dangerously close to crossing that line.

I walked back to my bus stop.  I'd like to report that some people observed the scene with approval.  I'd love to describe applause and back-clapping but there was none of that.  I think some saw the beginning and some saw the conclusion, so the individual stages made little sense to anyone.  Those who came in at the end only saw someone being angry, someone else looking a bit panicked and something about a coffee cup and a litter bin.