Many people who have taken taxis regularly enough have had to face that dreaded moment when you realize you don’t have enough cash — or you lost your wallet — and you won’t be able to pay the fare. There are ways to handle this, but offering the driver marijuana as barter is probably not the best idea.

Yet that’s what police say happened last weekend here in Philadelphia, where a young man lacked the funds to pay for his cab ride and ended up spending some time behind bars.

Police tell CBS 3 that officers were attempting to ticket the cab for double-parking on Friday night when the driver pointed out that his passenger was trying to stiff him on the fare.

“The guy says let me get some money for you and the cab driver says okay leave me some collateral,” a police rep tells CBS. “So he left his phone. He let him go in, he returns a short time later and he still doesn’t have any money.”

This is when the alleged weed-in-lieu offer was made.

“He tried, out of the view of the officers, to slip the cabbie a bag of marijuana to pay for the fare,” says the police rep.

CBS 3 says the driver told police he’d actually been considering just taking a loss on the eight dollar fare until he offered up the pot.

The passenger was arrested and charged with both possession and failing to pay for his cab ride. Philly.com reports that he was released the next day on his own recognizance but faces a hearing on the charges in April.

“Poor cabbie, he’s still out the $8 fare,” says the police captain. “Now he has to take time off of work to go to court because he will be subpoenaed as a witness… So here’s a guy who’s got a tough enough job as it is and now he’s out the fare and he’s going to lose a day’s of work or two for going to court.”

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