Money Now No Value?

Yesterday when I was doing my Sunday marketing, the nyonya at the dried goods stall was complaining about a mutilated five ringgit note that somebody slipped to her when making payment. She was worried that it would no longer be legal tender as some fool purposely cut out the serial number portion on the right side of the note. I guess he was frustrated that the note could not be defaced as per regular paper bank notes as this was a polymer note, so it is quite difficult to damage.

Anyway we got to talking about how some people nowadays no longer appreciate the money that they have, and this silly people would purposely deface or mutilate their bank notes just to inconvenience other people. The nyonya and his son mentioned that how such a mutilated five ringgit note would eat into their hard earned profits as they believed that the note is no longer legal tender, but I explained that they can go to a bank to exchange it for a new note, but if the bank rejects the note they then have to go to Bank Negara to assess whether it is replaceable. But then if would be a hassle if it is only for a single piece of note of lesser value, but I guess for shopkeepers and such it would be worth it if they compile a pile of such damaged notes and then go to Bank Negara to exchange it as a final recourse. Read the experience of another blogger about such exchange policy response from Bank Negara here. Anyway I ended my conversation with the stall owners by saying why should we be surprised by people treating our currency notes with contempt when the widespread disrespect of laws like traffic laws and such is so prevalent, which begs the bigger question, is our lives also so valueless?