Too lazy to lie.

We've just discovered the reason we haven't been able to trace a particular invoice in the financial systems is because Ted E. decided that rather than record the invoice number, he'd use a software serial number. And not even the software associated with that invoice, because that might offer a tentative clue enabling us to track the invoice down.

So he used the serial number of the previous version of the software instead.

It's hardly a revelation that Ted was a little arbitrary when it came to recording invoice details, and we already knew he made a lot of them up when he couldn't be bothered looking at the actual invoice. Back in the brief period when we had our fourth, super-efficient team member, that was one of the very first things she discovered.

No, what's surprising with today's discovery is that in his final year here he became too lazy to even make stuff up anymore, and just settled for copying random strings of characters from other sources. So who knows what other instances of delight and hilarity he laid in store for us before finally leaving?

(This all came to light because a client provided us with a quote they'd obtained, and wanted us to order it for them. We did - at a better price - passed the savings on to them, and somehow incurred the wrath of their auditors, who are now strenuously demanding a copy of all the paperwork to justify the lower cost. So no good deed goes unpunished.)